COPTERS FLY DESPITE 'PEACEFUL SKY'

Feds Fund Use of Helicopters in Isle Pot Busts

The county's so-called "Peaceful Sky" ordinance isn't stopping Big
Island police from using helicopters to enforce marijuana laws.

The ordinance, passed by voters in November, prevents the county from
accepting funds for the Green Harvest marijuana eradication program --
but hasn't kept police from using helicopters during
investigations.

Police Lt. Richard Sherlock of the Hilo Vice Section said a
misconception exists that police can no longer use helicopters in
marijuana cases.

In fact, police continue to use helicopters in pot
busts.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Hawaii Army
National Guard make helicopters available to police investigating
commercial marijuana growers. The federal government picks up the tab.

"There are helicopters we use that don't require police funding, or
renting of 'blade time,' or purchasing of a helicopter, and this has
been going on for years -- this is not unique to right now," Assistant
Police Chief Marshall Kanehailua said Thursday.

Police also make a distinction between eradicating marijuana and
investigating marijuana-related crimes.

"Marijuana eradication versus an investigation is two different
things. I think we have to seriously separate that," Kanehailua said.
"When you look at active investigations involving information that we
receive from informants or the public ... we need to follow up on that
information. And if it's outside of the 'Peaceful Sky' ordinance,
lowest law enforcement priority doesn't apply."

Sherlock said eradication is "a mission where we go out with no
intention of investigating. It's basically pulling up weeds and
destroying them. But when we do any kind of aerial recon for any type
of narcotic case ... we intend to investigate and bring someone to
adjudication."

The last eradication mission organized and funded by the Hawaii Police
Department was in February 2008, Sherlock said.

He said that surveillance is not as intrusive as eradication and does
not generate the volume of complaints.

"Most of the complaints we've gotten about helicopters have been when
there was an eradication mission, because that's when the choppers
really do (fly) low," he said.

In addition to blocking acceptance of funds for eradication, the
ordinance makes the "personal use" of marijuana by those 21 or older
on private property the lowest law enforcement priority of police.

The law defines the amount of marijuana deemed for "personal use" as
"24 or fewer Cannabis plants at any stage of maturity" or the "dried
equivalent," described as "24 or fewer ounces of usable cannabis."

Kanehailua noted that most arrests for third-degree promotion of a
detrimental drug, a state law making possession of an ounce or less of
marijuana a petty misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail, are
"piggybacked" on arrests made in other drug investigations or traffic
stops.

He said officers are directed to respect lowest priority enforcement
in the case of adult personal use on private property when other laws
are not being violated, and officers are to check for medical
marijuana licenses before requesting a search warrant for private property.

"The initiative limits lowest law enforcement priority to adult
personal use on private property," Kanehailua said. "And there's a
number (of plants) involved, 24. Now if you have 25, on public
property, you don't qualify for that. If you have 25 to 100 or even
more, we need to enforce that.

"We cannot accept money for marijuana eradication, and that is not the
case here. If we are doing aerial observation as part of an
investigation that results in an arrest and prosecution outside of the
lowest law enforcement priority's parameters, then we have to do that.
That's what the law states."