AIONA DRUG STRATEGY IS QUITE TROUBLING

Editor

I find Lt. Go. Duke Aiona's "Hawaii Drug Control Strategy: A New Beginning"
quite troubling.

He was here to take our community input to his "ice" summit? Hello, we on
the Big Island had an "ice" summit and we're moving into the second "ice"
summit. So, why is he taking us back to square one when we already past go
and getting ready to implement?

Where was Mayor Kim? Was he even invited? He's the one who spearheaded the
first "ice" summit and got Sen. Daniel Inouye involved in the fight.

Where was Billy Kenoi? Billy who has worked tirelessly, going from Big
Island community to community, educating and motivating the people to get up
and fight against this drug that is poisoning our children, destroying
families. He has spearheaded several initiatives to get things rolling,
getting past the "talk story" stage.

Mayor Kim declares "war" on ice. Money coming down the pipe and everyone
wants a piece of it. Let's make a "summit" in Honolulu. They usually
out-vote the outer islands, they get the monies and we on the outer islands
are left with the "ice" problem.

Children selling lollipops to support their parents' drug habits? Ten to
12-year-old prostitutes? Children sent to lockups on Oahu for 90 days or
more to dry out, they come back to the community, within a month or two,
back on ice, sent back to lockup to dry out, again? Limited or no resources
on this island to deal with the problem?

Are we going to help our children or are we just going to end up with
political debates? Why aren't we working as one, instead of splintering into
factions?

Bottom line, who is going to lose? Everyone.

Melissa L. Moniz

Hilo