DARE CONFERENCE TACKLES CHALLENGES

NUKOLI'I - Drug dealers and other unsavory types try daily to tempt
impressionable children with illegal substances.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education is the barrier that keeps these kids
on the right road. The Kaua'i Police Department, with Sgt. Ken
Carvalho at the helm, opened the DARE Conference Monday at the Hilton
Kaua'i Beach Resort.

Carvalho said the conference is to update DARE educators, officers,
the Department of Education and the U.S. Army.

More than 50 representatives from around the state converged at the
resort to listen and learn from five featured keynote speakers,
including Bill Russ, the official DARE safety speaker.

"Children are starved for role models," said Russ, also known as Retro
Bill. "If you are a DARE officer, teach with your heart and mind
because children have the greatest radar detectors in the world. You
need to live DARE just as you live aloha."

Kaua'i Police Chief Darryl Perry said the Kaua'i Police Department
recently made several major drug busts, including Operation Green
Stream and Garden Ice.

Perry said they removed 1,400 marijuana plants and arrested two
Kilauea men last week for marijuana cultivation. See sidebar for details.

Additionally, Carvalho said he was proud to have been a part of
Operation Green Stream which resulted in more than 6,000 marijuana
plants being removed from a hillside in Hanama'ulu in a single day.

"This was a major source of marijuana as a lot of it was going to the
local high schools," he said.

But with children being surrounded by well-known personalities that
have histories of drug use, there are not enough mentors out there for
children to learn from, Perry said.

He cited for example Barack Obama, a Hawai'i native now president of
the United States.

"He is one of thousands of students who graduated from Punahou, but
why did he become the president?" Perry asked.

His presidency is attributed to several things, but his achievement is
based on all the people involved in his life.

"The people in this room represent all that is right," Perry said.
"And we recognize you for all your work with young people."

Bill Arakaki, the Kaua'i Area Complex superintendent, said it is vital
that DARE keep disseminating information to local youth.

Arakaki said the DOE appreciates DARE The department performs health
risk surveys for students grades 9-12. The three leading areas of
concern based on the survey are drug and alcohol abuse, the students
being approached to try these substances and students riding with a
driver who has been drinking.

"It is vital to have the DARE conference to keep the information
flowing," Arakaki said.

Kaua'i Mayor Bernard Carvalho praised the DARE program for its work
with children to have them recognize and resist drugs and other
temptations.

"Having police in the DARE program has its benefits," he said. "It not
only makes police officers role models, it demonstrates to our young
people that the police are helpers."

Carvalho said he is pleased with the ability of the DARE program to
change and adapt to the messages being sent to young people during the
25 years DARE has been in effect.

That aspect has resulted in the DARE program being in all 50 states
and in 41 countries around the world, he said.

"The DARE program has a positive impact on young people," Carvalho
said, adding that his administration is looking forward to locating a
site for an on-island adolescent drug treatment center.

Arakaki said he had to cut short his visit on the opening day, but
promised to be back to hear about Internet predators, a topic being
covered at the conference that has recently been in the news when
several teenage girls were offered trips to Oklahoma.

"As long as I'm the superintendent, I will continue to support DARE
because this is a program that makes a difference in a child's life
and their families," Arakaki said. "We want children to be happy in
life."

For more information, visit www.dare.com