ANTI-DRUG MEETINGS

Mayor Bryan Baptiste's round of community "summits" on the problem of drug
abuse and drug dealing on Kaua'i are set to be held across the Island.

The meetings will hopefully bring out the truth about drug abuse and social
problems that drug abuse is causing in communities across Kaua'i.

The headliner of the four-meeting series may prove to be the one set for the
Kawaihau District, scheduled for the Kapa'a Elementary School cafeteria on
Thursday, May 29.

Tentatively scheduled at the Kapa'a meeting is a presentation by Hawai'i's
Federal Prosecutor Ed Kubo on the "Weed and Seed" program. "Weed and Seed"
has been a success in Chinatown, Kuhio Park Terrace and other neighborhoods
in Honolulu where drug sales and illicit drug abuse were rampant. The
program brings in federal drug enforcement agents to clean out drug dealers
and drug houses, providing a "weeding" for a community of the criminal
element associated with drug dealing. Once the dealers and street dealing
are eliminated, federally-funded programs are implemented to help solve
social problems in the community, and to help reinvigorate the area.

To qualify for the program, a neighborhood, or in Kaua'i's case a town, must
request that the federal program be implemented. An existing community
organization, or one created to bring together existing community
organizations, need to be ready to work on the program alongside
representatives of the federal government.

The Kapa'a community should carefully consider the advantages of requesting
that the "Weed and Seed" program be brought in. The demographics of the
Kawaihau District make it an area with pockets of poverty, and with pockets
of drug dealing - the two problems the program goes a long way in solving.

The cost to the community will be in time and dedicated commitment. The pay
off will hopefully be the elimination of a big chunk of the drug problem
that is wrecking families, seeping its way into area schools and boosting
criminal acts like burglary and robbery.