'ICE' BATTLE HEATS UP

WAILUKU - While several hundred Maui residents rallied Thursday afternoon
against drug abuse, a group of Wailuku residents who had held a similar rally
Wednesday reported being harassed by suspected drug users.

The sign-waving rally along Kaahumanu Avenue on Thursday was part of an
islandwide effort to raise awareness of the growing problem of drug abuse and
particularly use of crystal methamphetamine, or "ice."

The rally followed the broadcast of an hourlong video documentary Wednesday
night about the ice epidemic in the islands. The video was shown on 11
Hawaii-based television networks. According to the program, crystal
methamphetamine has displaced alcohol as the primary reason for seeking
drug-abuse treatment in Hawaii.

In 2002, 2,888 individuals admitted to being addicted to ice and sought
treatment.

But problems caused by ice addiction hit home again for the group of residents
who held a sign-waving campaign outside the Kahekili Terrace housing project in
Happy Valley on Wednesday.

Jane Kaleikini, the woman who helped organize the Wednesday effort, said she
and other residents who participated have received anonymous threats over their
sign-waving rally.

She said she suspects drug dealers or users drove by her home at around 2 to 3
a.m. Thursday calling her names and threatening her.

"I'm not giving in to them," she said. "If they like do something to me, that's
fine. I'm going all the way, to get help to clean up this town."

The threats against Kaleikini and Kahekili Terrace residents have gotten the
attention of Maui police, who promised to step up patrols in the neighborhood.

"We're on that like you wouldn't believe," said Capt. George Fontaine,
commander of the Wailuku Patrol District.

He said officers are being told to "be extra vigilant in case of ramifications"
while they conduct patrols around Wailuku and particularly in the Happy Valley
community where the Kahekili Terrace project is located.

Kaleikini, a former resident of Kahekili Terrace, organized the anti-drug rally
on North Market Street with residents of the project to express their distress
at the brazen activities of drug dealers and drug users.

Residents said drug users get into fights around their homes, and the constant
traffic of users and dealers buying and selling drugs runs through the night on
a regular basis.

Kaleikini said she planned the rally as a way of drumming up support in the
community for others to get involved in the effort to get rid of drugs in the
housing project and in Wailuku town.

But there was a reaction from the drug users. Other participants in the rally
also were harassed Thursday, Kaleikini said.

One resident reported finding a note outside his door on Thursday morning
asking why the residents and supporters held the rally, she said.

Fontaine said the note on the doorstep was reported to police and has been
documented as a harassment case. There were no direct threats in the note, he
said.

But he said other people who have been involved in previous
anti-drug campaigns similarly have been subjected to negative responses.

"They cannot lose sight of what the vision is, to rid the neighborhood" of
drugs, he said.

Kaleikini said the intimidation will not stop her, and Wednesday's rally won't
be the last. She and others who participated in the Wailuku rally also joined
the larger group of residents waving signs on Kaahumanu Avenue on Thursday.

She said she understands that intimidation may scare some people and affect the
turnout for future efforts.

"If everybody's getting scared and they want to back out, that's fine," she
said. She will continue the publicity campaign. She also wanted to address the
people who were harassing the residents. A harassment note said the sign wavers
were "bringing them down," she said.

"We're not putting them down. We're asking them to get help," she said. "We
wasn't out there to put them down because they are doing the drug. That's their
life. They can screw it up."

But she said the community needs to take action to protect children growing up
in the neighborhood and being exposed to the activities of drug dealers and
addicts. She said she wants to protect the children who live in the area and
keep the streets safe for them to walk on without being harassed by drug users
and dealers.

Fontaine said harassment by drug users should motivate organizers more to take
action in their neighborhoods.

"That's how we are going to win the drug war. We are not going to win it on an
island basis overnight. It's street by street, block by block, neighborhood by
neighborhood," he said.

Police are aware of the problems occurring in the neighborhood around Kahekili
Terrace, he said. A community policing officer will be assisting residents with
setting up a citizens patrol, and there will be an effort to find federal
grants or other funds to provide for an increased police presence in the
Wailuku area, he said.

At the rally along Kaahumanu Avenue, participants said they also have suffered
from the pain and anguish of drug abuse.

Holding a sign reading, "Ice hurt my family. No Ice," Edith Auwae said she had
lived through the ordeal of addiction of her son and knew firsthand the
difficulty of coping with ice addiction.

"It's a sad situation," she said. "I thought he would never get out of it. Now
he has a stable life and he works.

"I sympathize with parents who go through this. I used to cry at night."

She said she forced herself to take a "tough love" approach that forced him to
deal with his addiction.

"It's the hardest thing to get it out of their life. It's a living hell. They
are like Jekyll and Hyde; one day they love you and the next day they hate
you," she said. "They don't see . . . In their eyes, you are the worst parent."

A recovered addict, Nona Hough, agreed.

"It's the devil's drug. That's what people call it. You don't care for anybody
but yourself," she said.

But she has been off drugs for seven years and is now the housing coordinator
for Maui Economic Opportunity's BEST Re-integration Program.