BUDGET CUTS SLASH FUNDS FOR LANAI'S DRUG CLINIC

Service Is In Jeopardy Despite A Partnership With Alu Like Inc.

As lawmakers, health-care workers and educators gather today for the state's
three-day summit to tackle the crystal methamphetamine epidemic, a 75 percent
cut in funding may force the only drug abuse prevention program on Lanai to
reduce its services.

Maui County granted the nonprofit Coalition for a Drug Free Lanai $9,750 for
this fiscal year, down from $39,000 last year, said Joelle Aoki, the former
executive director of the agency, who was forced to find a job elsewhere
because of the cuts.

Dwayne Betsill, vice chairman of the Maui County Grants Review Committee,
attributed the coalition's cuts to a more than 50 percent drop in available
money for grant funding.

"We've got all kinds of criticism this year because we cut everybody," he said.

The coalition has survived by partnering with Alu Like Inc., a statewide
nonprofit that provides social services to native Hawaiians. The agency is also
looking for state funding and has applied for a federal grant from the Office
of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

The coalition -- formed 12 years ago to counter an increased presence of drugs,
especially crystal meth, on Lanai -- has brought alcohol, drug and tobacco
prevention programs into the island's only public school, Lanai High and
Elementary.

"We go above and beyond prevention education," Aoki said.

"And we still have a big problem (on Lanai). There may be less adults using,
but there are more youths using. We hope we will help to curb the drug use,"
she said, adding that the state's first "ice" arrest was made on Lanai in the
late '80s.

The partnership with Alu Like relieves some of the coalition's financial
worries but does not guarantee the agency will be able to provide the community
with as many programs as it has in the past, she said.

Butch Gima, a coalition board member and Lanai's only full-time drug treatment
therapist, said the organization is still in a transition phase "trying to
figure out how to best merge the needs for both agencies."

"We're recognizing what each organization has to offer," he said.

Gima is one of four specialists from Lanai who will attend today's drug summit,
hosted by Lt. Gov. James Aiona Jr. at the Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort.

He said that at the conference he will try to drum up more support for the
coalition in hopes of heading off a bigger drug problem on Lanai.

"Treatment is important, but I don't think we can put all of our eggs in that
basket," he said. "By the time you get to treatment, a lot of times the damage
has been done."