KAUA'I'S ICE WAR BEING FOUGHT IN WASHINGTON

As Kaua'i Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste and Roy Nishida, the county anti-drug
coordinator, head to O'ahu this week for Lt. Gov. James R. "Duke" Aiona Jr.'s
three-day drug summit, Kaua'i's congressmen are busy in Washington trying to
secure federal funds to combat the crystal methamphetamine problem on the
island.

Both U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai'i, U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-rural O'ahu-Neighbor
Islands, have worked to get federal funds to Kaua'i for multiple areas of the
war on drugs, from bringing the highly-successful Hawai'i County Comprehensive
Methamphetamine Response program to Kaua'i, to laboratory training and
environmental clean-up funding.

Although the bills have not passed yet, both lawmakers are optimistic about
"ending Kaua'i's ice age," as the mayor's bumper stickers say.

Inouye has been instrumental in getting the Senate Appropriations Committee to
earmark $6.5 million specifically for the war on drugs for the 2004 fiscal
year; $4.5 million of that is to expand the Big Island program to Kaua'i, Maui,
and Lana'i.

The Hawai'i County program provides drug treatment and youth rehabilitation for
its addicts. The other $2 million is to coordinate law enforcement from all
islands and the federal government to stop the flow of drugs into, within, and
out of the state, said Inouye in a statement.

The bills are in House/Senate conference committees to reconcile differences
between versions of the appropriations bills. They would then head to the full
Senate and full House for approval, said Mike Yuen, a Inouye staff member.

Case, on the other hand, co-sponsored a bill called "Clean, Learn, Educate,
Abolish, Neutralize, and Undermine Production of Methamphetamine Act" in
February.

The bill, which is pending in House committees, is geared to fight ice on a
national level, said Randy Obata, Case's spokesperson. Of the measures in the
bill, there would be grants available for treatment centers, advanced police
training, and environmental clean-up.

Meanwhile, the mayor and Nishida are excited about the upcoming summit,
"Hawai'i Drug Control Strategy: A New Beginning," from Monday, Sept. 14,
through Wednesday, Sept. 17, at the Sheraton Waikiki.

"We want to find out what (Aiona's) plan is," said Nishida.

The summit will "bring together more than 400 community partners,
law-enforcement agencies, human-service organizations, substance-abuse and
treatment providers, and federal, state and county officials to develop
cohesive strategies and meaningful solutions to combat the state's growing
drug- and alcohol-abuse problems," said Aiona in a statement.

Nishida said he is very interested in hearing the results of Aiona's statewide
"talk-story" sessions, where the lieutenant governor gathered information from
all types of people on the prevalence of ice in Hawai'i's communities.

Nishida also wants to hear new ideas on "coordinating new legislation to help
the war on drugs," such as wiretapping laws, and the civil "public nuisance"
law that has allowed law enforcement access to places where neighbors had
complained about traffic and noise in a certain house or area.

"The aim of the Hawai'i Drug Control Strategy is to cultivate community
capacity and improve the quality of life in the state of Hawai'i by reducing
illicit drug use," said Aiona.