'ICE' A HEALTH, SOCIAL PROBLEM

It's hardly news that the use of crystal methamphetamine, also known as
"ice" or "batu," is ruining lives, destroying families and filling Hawaii's
jails and prisons.

The Maui News and the other news media in Hawaii have done hundreds of
stories pointing out the problems and efforts to find solutions.

Now the use of ice "is a crisis in this state," said House Majority Leader
Scott Saiki as the Legislature agreed to form a select committee to study
the problem. Senate President Robert Bunda said the unusual House-Senate
committee, whose members have yet to be named, would be looking at tougher
law enforcement, better treatment programs and the possibility of mandatory
drug testing in the public schools.

At the same time, the state Department of Public Safety is conducting a $1.5
million study to evaluate sites on the Big Island for a 600-inmate prison
that would be focused on drug-abuse treatment. Hawaii's prison system has
more than 5,000 inmates with 85 percent, or more than 4,000, of those
inmates needing some form of treatment for drug or alcohol abuse. Forty
percent of everyone arrested in Honolulu during 1991 tested positive for
methamphetamine use.

Ice is a vicious drug that can be manufactured cheaply just about anywhere.
Officials should be rigorously tracking the chemicals needed to make it. It
gives the user an intense "high" and an equally intense "low" when it is not
used, and it has been linked to the suicides of young people.

Any solution to the ice problem must be a community solution, the same sort
of community awareness and attitudes that have been effective in combating
drunken driving and cigarette smoke in public places. The most successful
treatment programs involve the abuser's entire family. The reasons for
wanting to escape reality must be addressed before any real rehabilitation
can take place. The most successful programs also have elements of strict
supervision and follow-up counseling.

A sincere effort by the Legislature and other officials to understand
Hawaii's primary drug problem could focus the community and its resources on
finding solutions. An insincere get-tough, lip-service approach will do more
harm than good.