PUBLIC SHOULD GIVE ASSISTANCE TO ANTI-DRUG TASK FORCE

The Issue

A Leilehua High School teacher has been charged with distributing crystal meth.

LAW enforcement agencies are pointing to the arrest of a Leilehua
High School teacher as a sign of the effectiveness of a new anti-drug
task force. The arrest is an indication that residents are reporting
such activities to authorities, and the government is right in
encouraging such calls.

The Hawaii Rapid Reduction Drug Task Force obviously used the arrest
of special education teacher Lee Anzai to bring public attention to
the cooperative effort. The idea of a teacher being accused of
selling crystal methamphetamine is alarming, even though he is not
accused of selling it on campus or to students or other faculty.

Anzai, 29, is charged with selling nearly a pound of meth to an
undercover state deputy sheriff over a period of several weeks during
September and October. Anzai told the undercover agent that he began
using "ice" eight years ago, when he was catcher for the Hawaii
Pacific University baseball team. He is believed to be the first
Hawaii public school teacher to be charged with dealing ice.

Authorities said the investigation was initiated by phone calls by
community members to the Honolulu Police Department's Narcotics/Vice
Division. It was assisted by a person who owed Anzai $3,000 for drugs
and apparently introduced the deputy sheriff, nicknamed "Duke," to Anzai.

The task force was created in February to coordinate activities of
Honolulu police, the state's Sheriff Division, the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration, the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

It has survived a report by the inspector general of the Justice
Department suggesting that Hawaii receives too much federal anti-meth
funding. The report based each state's "significant meth problem" on
the number of lab seizures, ignoring the fact that 80 percent of the
nation's meth is smuggled into the country, mostly from Mexico.

In its first eight months, the task force has made 30 federal
drug-related arrests, seizing 35 pounds of ice, five pounds of
cocaine, 11 firearms, five drug-related vehicles and $710,000 in
cash. Those are impressive numbers and indicate that meth remains a
serious problem in Hawaii.

U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo said the task force's mission is to "quickly
and aggressively investigate and arrest in a mid-to low-level
neighborhood drug dealers in hopes of working our way into the
prosecution of drug organizations above them."

Tony Williams, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA in
Honolulu, says the Anzai arrest shows that residents' "calls and
complaints are not falling on deaf ears and that they do matter." The
number of the HPD's Narcotics/Vice Division is 529-3101.