RESIDENTS: POLICE DON'T DO ENOUGH TO FIGHT ICE

KAHULUI - Residents expressed their frustration over police response to their
community drug problems, and former drug addicts shared their stories at an
anti-drug community meeting Tuesday night at the Lihikai School cafeteria.

"I wish we could get more help from the police," said Maipela Kaonohi of
Kahakuloa.

Kaonohi and her husband, Chico, said even their small community is affected by
drugs.

Maipela Kaonohi said she recently had seen a group of people in a van who
looked high driving through their neighborhood. Chico Kaonohi added that the
van was driving erratically, down their private road, but, by the time they
called police, the van was parked and the people had left.

"It seems like we call in (to police), and nothing's being done," he said.

The Kaonohis were among about 25 people who gathered at the meeting organized
by Wailuku resident Jane Kaleikini, who has put together other anti-drug events
in the past two weeks.

"Even though I didn't get a big turnout, this won't be the first and it won't
be the last," Kaleikini told the audience.

A community anti-drug sign-waving rally was held Wednesday afternoon in front
of the Kahekili Terrace housing project on North Market Street.

On Tuesday night, police officer Craig Bajadali, who serves as the community
police officer in Wailuku, told the Kaonohis he was not making excuses for
police, but he said police are shorthanded.

Bajadali fielded a number of questions, sometimes heated ones from residents
saying they have called police a number of times but don't see any responses.

Bajadali said he understands the residents' concerns but police have to abide
by laws and need specific information in order to make arrests and do search
warrants.

He said if police do not get specifics or do their jobs carefully, charges
against suspects will not hold up in court.

In response to citizens who said they've called police a number of times and
have even gone down to the Police Department and got no answers, he said people
should be adamant in their efforts and keep on appealing to police or even
higher government officials if they feel they are not getting results.

Bajadali said if people think they are witnessing drug activity in their
neighborhoods, they should take down the license plate numbers of cars and
times that the vehicles appear. He also said to write down the number of people
in the car. The information can then be given to police.

"Whatever you do, don't confront. That's the last thing we want someone to do,"
he said.

Recovering drug addicts and ex-addicts told their stories and gave each other
support at the meeting.

"Don't give up. Do what you are doing," Mariya Dones, director of forensic
programs at Aloha House, a drug recovery center, told the audience, which
included recovering addicts.

"I am 22 years clean and sober today," she said.

Dones said she used crystal methamphetamine before 1981, which was before it
got the nickname ice.

She said she got through her addictions with the love of her mother. "Ohana is
so important. My mother never gave up on me," she said.

Dones praised Kaleikini's efforts, saying organization and collaboration is
power.

She said that in a recent drug-recovery group meeting at Aloha House, a drug
dealer told her about the "aunties," or older women, are people to be reckoned
with.

"Ho, the aunties, they are the worst," Dones said the dealer told her. "They
call the cops like that."

She appealed to the audience to "tighten the screws" and not let drugs take
over their community.

Dones said people should keep on calling police because "the dealers are going
to be doing what they are doing."

She also told residents of Kahekili Terrace to keep on their fight.

Kahekili residents have been holding sign-waving rallies to get support from
the community to rid their complex of drugs.

Dones said that for two years she used to live next to a drug addict, who
"tweaked" frequently in her back yard.

"It was unpleasant," she said. Unlike Kahekili Terrace, Dones said, "I didn't
have neighbors' support."

Kim Mollena, a recovering ice addict, said she has been clean for four months.

Now she lives at Harvest Chapel Church of God in Lahaina, where she has found
the inspiration of God to help her.

Mollena said in her 12 years of using ice, she has lost her children and her
husband, but "mostly I lost my self-respect."

She said she stole and even sold her body for drugs.

But now she doesn't even "test the waters" and stays away from places and
people that may tempt her to do drugs.