ANTI-DRUG COORDINATOR AIMS TO SAVE LIVES

Theresa Koki And Volunteers Carry Out Plan

Some 80 to 90 percent of all crimes committed on Kaua'i are drug
related. This is according to a Drug Response Plan covering 2008-2013
and generated to serve as a guide for agencies who work with youth and
adults, especially those struggling with substance abuse.

And who knows those statistics better than mayoral appointee,
Anti-Drug Coordinator Theresa Koki? Stepping into her third year as
what some jokingly call her anti-drug "Czarina" position, Koki's
office faces the same economic gloom as the rest of the nation.

And the good news? Koki and her cadre of about 100 volunteers, plus a
new Americorps volunteer worker carry on. Good thing Koki is a glass
half-full kind of person, because witnessing drug addiction or abuse
is stressful, and she deals with it every day.

"It affects almost every family," says Koki. "It's such an ugly
addiction and turns normal people into different people, ruins
families and communities. I actually had a hard time keeping staff
here because of what it takes to take care of it and at least try to
fight it."

The Drug Response Plan addresses four interconnected components of the
problem identified and addressed in the first response plan initiated
during the late Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste's administration: prevention,
treatment, integration and enforcement. In the process of working
these four elements, Koki forms community partnerships, working with
nonprofit community organizations to help get funding to continue
what's working while managing grants and working with school students.

Her work is all across the board. Ideally, having a healthy budget for
prevention would help nip some of the drug - and alcohol - abuse and
addiction in the bud.

"If you do prevention up front, you don't have to do as much on the
other end," says Koki.

An example of prevention programming is Waele A Ola Hou, meaning,
literally, to take out and replenish. It's based on a federal program
that goes by the name "Weed and Seed," meaning just what it says - rip
out the unwanted stuff and plant anew.

But Kaua'i didn't meet population requirements for the federal
funding, so Koki's office got it elsewhere and had Waele A Ola Hou
going in three communities - Kekaha, Hanama'ulu and Kilauea.

Hanama'ulu worked with the Parks and Recreation Department to remove
illegal campers, spruce the place up and have a celebration to let
families know they're welcome and all can work to keep it safe.

It's community-building and some take issue with spending money that
way, but building community is what prevention is all about, Koki
said. Communities have held neighborhood walks to take back the
streets, so to speak, met, mingled and gotten healthy in the process.

Koki points to her office's involvement in partnering with the Big
Brothers Big Sisters program, three of which are going on between
Kapa'a Elementary and High School. And Koki and at least 10 other
county employees are sistering and brothering with kids at Wilcox
Elementary - they call each other lunch buddies.

"The fact that they have someone coming over to talk to them is
exciting," she says. "It's actually a stress release for me to go over
and talk with them."

One of the most dramatic prevention programs is called Shattered
Dreams, a mock drunk driver crash a year in the planning and enacted
over two days at a different public high school each year. Students in
the enactment play various roles; all go away overnight for a retreat,
some of them tapped by the Grim Reaper.

"I cannot do one without crying," says Koki.

Treatment is a vital part of the Drug Response Plan. The notion of
sending youth off to another island doesn't sit well with people who
are in the business of knowing what works.

"We send our kids off island and their families are here and the
family falls apart," says Koki. "We need to heal together.

"The community needs to be educated. If we're saying yes, we need a
treatment center, but don't put in my backyard, they need to
understand it IS already in their backyard - people are using."

Welcoming former users back into the community - integration - and
enforcement are the remaining key elements to the Drug Response Plan.

Says Koki, "If I can save one life every day, I think I've done my
job. You don't hear about it right away, but I've known a lot of
success stories, and if that person can help another person then it's
a chain reaction."

To download the Drug Response Plan, go to www.kauai.gov/antidrug ; for
more information or to volunteer, contact Koki at tkoki@kauai.gov or
241.4925.