INCREASE PROVEN STRATEGIES TO FIGHT 'ICE'

THE ISSUE -- A Summit Conference Has Been Scheduled This Week To Develop A
Strategy To Combat Hawaii's Crystal Methamphetamine Problem.

CRYSTAL methamphetamine has not become a problem of catastrophic proportions in
Hawaii for lack of concern. While some efforts have been misdirected, other
attempts to combat the problem have found success. The Legislature has formed a
task force to tackle the problem, and the Lingle administration will conduct a
summit tomorrow through Wednesday to address the issues. A robust effort is
needed to accelerate the methods that have worked and avoid those that have
been shown to be ineffective.

During the past week, Star-Bulletin reporters produced a series of articles
examining the state's "ice storm." Addiction to the drug has disrupted families
and careers, and resulted in countless habit-supporting property crimes. Last
year alone, ice caused 62 deaths, including 20 by overdose, 17 suicides and 10
homicides.

Crystal meth arrived in Hawaii before it befell the mainland, brought to the
islands from Asian drug traffickers in the 1980s. By the mid-'90s, the main
source had shifted to the West Coast and Mexico. It has not been produced in
Hawaii on a large scale. During the past three years, only a dozen
manufacturing labs have been seized in Hawaii, compared to more than 3,400 in
California and 23,000 nationally. It is easily smuggled into the state by plane
or postal delivery. Chances of intercepting such contraband are slim.

Ice is not a growing problem in schools. While the number of adults treated in
Hawaii for ice addiction has doubled in the past five years, the percentage of
high school students who have tried it has dropped steadily from 11.7 percent
in 1989 to 5.3 percent last year, according to surveys.

City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle has proposed voluntary drug tests in schools to
detect crystal meth. However, a national study has shown drug abuse to be as
common in schools with drug testing as in those without it. D. William Wood, a
University of Hawaii sociologist and an expert on the subject, warns that drug
testing "at a time when the data show a reduction in ice use in the schools
sends a mixed message."

Instead, Wood recommends increasing what seems to have been responsible for the
decline: counseling. The state Health Department has substance-abuse counselors
in 29 of the state's 44 public high schools and three of the 56 middle schools.
More counselors should be hired.

The criminal-justice system has not dealt effectively with the problem. Judges
and lawyers have observed a pronounced increase in crimes committed by ice
addicts trying to support a habit that typically costs $50 to $170 a day, but
no method has been developed to quantify them. Anecdotal information is not
good enough.

Last year's Legislature enacted a law allowing probation with treatment to
first-time nonviolent drug offenders but failed to appropriate enough money to
provide that treatment. "All they did was put on the streets drug addicts who
are going to commit crimes to fuel their habit," says Public Safety Director
John Peyton. Obviously, treatment should not be prescribed unless it is
available, and it should be made available.

Drug courts have been effective in providing treatment for nonviolent
offenders, resulting in a recidivism rate of only 5 percent among those who
graduated from the Oahu program in the past seven years. However, graduates
numbered only 315, little more than half of those who entered the program.
Those are small numbers compared to the conservative estimate of more than
8,000 Hawaii residents addicted to crystal meth.