KIM SAYS 'ICE' FIGHT MAKING PROGRESS

It's been two years since Mayor Harry Kim declared a war on the drug crystal
methamphetamine and he says he's pleased with how the fight is going.

Kim said that although the "ice" problem is as least as severe as it was in
2001, community participation and government money aimed at battling the use
of the illegal drug should help in the fight.

"This is a serious, serious problem," Kim said. "We are going to make
headway into it. I think we already are."

Kim caught the attention of Sen. Daniel Inouye, D - Hawaii, early in his
anti - ice campaign. Inouye was one of the participants at an ice summit
last August in Waikoloa.

Hawaii County expects $4 million in federal funds by July to fight ice.
"Senator Inouye has more than come through," Kim said Sunday.

Mayoral aide Billy Kenoi said some of that money must go toward prevention
and education. Ice is so highly addictive, he said, that it would be too
late if we put all the money toward rehabilitation and law enforcement.

"If we're going to win this war, we've got to address demand reduction so
that tomorrow we've got a better community than we have today," Kenoi said.
"We need 40 million not 4 million but it's a great start."

Kenoi wasn't ready to give a precise budget breakdown for the anti - ice
money, but he said some of it likely will go toward paying the salaries of
three more Drug Enforcement Administration officers to work out of the
Hawaii County Police Department. The island now has only one DEA agent.

Part of the $4 million will go toward establishing an adolescent residential
drug treatment facility on the Big Island, Kenoi said, so children won't
have to go to another island when they need treatment. "Shame on us for
sending our children who need our help off the island," Kenoi said. "Where's
the incentive?"

Kenoi also wants to use some of the federal money to support community
efforts to fight ice and some to bolster the island's new Drug Court.

Other funds would go for domestic abuse problems because much of that is
drug related and for a mentoring program to provide youths with positive
role models. "We're not doing enough for our children," Kenoi said.

An additional $350,000 in federal money is earmarked for a drug lab at the
Hawaii County Police Department.

The Rural Development Assistance grant was badly needed, Kenoi said, because
with the Police Department's outdated equipment, it often took up to a year
to confirm that substances seized by police were really illegal drugs. That
frustrated the public, who would see suspects released back into the
community while police awaited the lab results.

The new system can provide a report within 48 hours of an arrest, Kenoi
said.

As part of the fight, the Bay Clinic got a $1.25 million federal grant a
year ago to administer an anti - drug - abuse program.

Kenoi said it's not just the federal government that is helping in the ice
war. Hawaii County expects $300,000 from the state to go toward the
adolescent treatment facility and $100,00 for community prevention and
education.

At the county level, Kim has requested money to pay for six new officers who
would form an ice task force and for a computer database to track their
cases.

This week Kenoi will kick off a half - hour weekly television program on
channel 55, the cable public access channel. "Ice Wars" will be a self -
contained show within the existing program, "Hawaii Aloha," said producer
Rosey Rosenthal. The show will air at 8 p.m. Thursdays and 10 p.m. Fridays.

The county already has an ice Web site (healingourisland.com) where
concerned citizens can go to find information about crystal methamphetamine.
Log on and you'll see this statement: "Hawaii County has twice the statewide
average of sixth - graders who reported using ice."

Kenoi said children now are smoking the drug at Waiakea Intermediate School.

Police have shifted their priorities from marijuana eradication missions to
ice house raids and Kenoi said the public supports that.

"All of us in the community have got to work together to find a solution,"
Kenoi said. "Everybody's got to commit."