STICKING HEADS IN DRUG SAND

Your June 13 front-page story "Recovery advocates criticize QUEST"
begs provocative questions, one of which concerns your "news" not
being news at all. Don't we know this already?

A year ago, passionate, powerful legislators such as Matt Matsunaga,
Avery Chumbley, Andy Levin, Nestor Garcia, Suzanne Chun Oakland and
Marilyn Lee sat down with decision-makers from the Judiciary, the
departments of Health, Public Safety and Human Services, and the
Hawaii Paroling Authority, plus insurers, drug treatment providers,
leaders of community organizations and business people - virtually
every interested party in the "What do we do about our absurd practice
of locking up sick people?" debate.

We met for months, and together we:

Identified the inadequacies of our current drug treatment system,
including flawed QUEST coverage and practices.

Studied results-oriented models from other states. Ohio has a system
that works. So do Arizona, Connecticut and Oregon.

Drafted legislation based on the best of these, tailored for local
conditions and needs. The leaders of the Senate and House introduced
drug treatment bills to the Legislature. The governor offered a
package. Garcia's privatized-prison bill with its emphasis on drug
treatment, community involvement and rewards for lasting success was
brilliant.

Did and said the things that make your "news" old news.

Failed. And together, we deserved to fail.

The reality is this: As a state, Hawai`i refuses to take care of its
own. Despite heroic work by many, many people and a community
consensus that our moms and dads, brothers and sisters, and sons and
daughters should not be locked up for using drugs, our basic way to
solve drug problems is to forget about them. Locking up people has
become like taking out the trash, hoping never to see it again.

The least newsworthy part of your piece offered in the context of The
Advertiser's thoughtful, forceful, continuing coverage of drug
treatment as an alternative to incarceration (and isn't it amazing
that even the dailies support this approach without turning the tide?)
involves money.

Haven't we heard this before?

"Quite frankly," Charles Duarte of Med-Quest states, " ... we're
underfunded for substance abuse treatment. We don't have the money."
Au contraire, Mr. Duarte; frankly, we do.

Let's do the math again. One year in prison costs more than $20,000.
Drug treatment costs less than $10,000. (The little number wins.) In
the long run, moreover, every dollar spend on drug treatment saves
seven dollars. They know this in Washington and Washington Place alike.

No, our problem isn't cash, it's courage. Despite our fine words or
perhaps because of them, imagining that fine words alone are enough,
we simply don't have the will to yank 1,000 nonviolent addicts from
Halawa and the Mainland, save $20 million doing so, spend half of it
on drug treatment, and pocket $10 million for Hawai`i's taxpayers.

Why are we so timid, so foolhardy, so fiscally irresponsible, so ready
to lock up human beings in cages? Who knows? And who are the timid,
foolhardy, irresponsible, cruel people among us? Who knows?

But when the governor wants it, the Legislature wants it, the
Judiciary wants it, Public Safety, Health, Human Services and Parole
want it, and the people of Hawai`i want it, drug treatment - not
incarceration - is what we should have.

I look forward to reading some news.