ICE DATA DOUBTED BUT NOT PROBLEM

HONOLULU (AP) -- Legislative leaders said Tuesday that questionable figures
from federal and state officials on the number of Hawaii people using
crystal meth-amphetamine, or "ice," don't diminish the urgency of the
problem.

During a joint House-Senate hearing on Monday, U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo told
lawmakers that ''reliable ballpark figures'' estimated 30,000 hard-core ice
users and 90,000 recreational users in Hawaii. Based on Hawaii's 1.2 million
population, the 120,000 figure would mean one in every 10 people in Hawaii
is using the highly addictive drug.

Gov. Linda Lingle for a second day declined to comment on whe-ther or not
she felt Kubo's figure was accurate, but she said Tuesday that it's
important that government officials provide the public with reliable
information. ''I think it's important any time the government is giving the
public estimates, whe-ther it's about homelessness or drug use or any other
negative social characteristic, that we try to be as accurate as we can,''
she said. ''I think you're unnecessarily upsetting the public if you
overstate it.''

Senate President Robert Bunda and House Speaker Calvin Say, agreed Tuesday
that Kubo's figure, which was echoed at the hearing by state Attorney
General Mark Bennett, sounds too high.

The University of Hawaii professor who was cited as the source of the
numbers told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin he never made such an estimate. ''I
absolutely never said anything near 30,000 people. Certainly not 90,000
users or 120,000. That's ridiculous,'' said William Wood, a professor of
sociology who also serves on the drug epidemiology work group for the
National Institute on Drug Abuse, which forecasts drug trends regionally and
nationally.

Wood said that in a 2000 study he estimated 8,100 people in the state were
ice addicts in need of treatment after a 1998 household survey of more than
5,000 people in Hawaii.

''It seems people are reaching for the highest numbers and the highest shock
value,'' Wood said.

Kubo said he got the figure from a Dec. 9, 1999, Star-Bulletin article that
quoted Honolulu Police Vice Division Lt. Michael Moses who later told the
newspaper his source was Wood.

Bunda and Say said the law enforcement community needs to get a better
estimate of the problem so lawmakers will know what decisions to make.

The legislative hearing process is needed to ''ferret out the real number,''
Bunda said. ''We need officials to come forward and validate the number and
make sure that these numbers are not just embellished or just inflated for
the sake of getting issues off the ground.''

''I'm saying we do have a major problem out there, but I'm not sure it's one
in 10,'' he said. ''I can say in my district, it's a huge problem.''

Say said he was ''kind of surprised and taken aback'' by Kubo's figure.

In determining whether the state needs more drug treatment facilities or
more prison facilities, lawmakers need accurate number on the number of ice
users, he said.

''I think the figures may be questionable. I don't know,'' said Senate
Minority Leader Fred Hemming, R-Lanikai-Waimanalo. ''But what I do know is
that we have a very serious social and economic crisis on our hands.''