Maui County Officials Operating in the Dark Ages

Are the Maui police and planning departments living under rocks? Do
they not know that we are in a recession? Did they miss the news that
the governments of the United States and the state of Hawaii are both
attempting to cut back on nonessential spending, and instead focus the
little funds that they have an actions that will help the citizens of
our country and state?

Evidently they missed the memo, because the zoning division of the
Planning Department is still focusing a large portion of its efforts
on harassing vacation rental owners who might be - gasp - earning a
living.

And, the Maui Police Department, according to The Maui News, Feb. 21,
is proud that it arrested and "seized" marijuana plants grown by men
who had medical marijuana licenses, but had more than enough plants
for their personal use. I assume that they were growing for other
medical marijuana patients who were probably too sick to practice
horticulture. The crime of the growers was, again, "making a profit."

I realize that Maui is an outer island, but it does have electricity;
it does have access to newspapers and the Internet. I am thoroughly
astonished that the officials in charge of these departments continue
to sanction these archaic practices when our county faces real
problems such as a severe ice epidemic and soaring
unemployment.

Mathew Stein

Lahaina