PRISON DOESN'T SOLVE HAWAI'I'S ICE PROBLEM

I have been attending the various meetings around town and listening to the
rhetoric of fear about the "ice epidemic" and cannot help but wonder what the
legislative agenda will be when the dust settles for the 2004 session. I hope
that "get tough" legislation is not the only thing that comes from this. That
will result in the same old "song and dance."

Locking up drug addicts by itself does not solve the drug problem. Treatment
and prevention strategies are where money is desperately needed. You can lock
them up, and when they're released, these people are still drug-addicted --
only now they're better criminals because they've gone to criminal "graduate
school."

Also, don't make the mistake of over-simplification, that the drug problem in
this state is only ice. Alcohol and tobacco still kill more people than all
other drugs combined.

Dave Endo

Waipahu