USING ICE DAMAGES BRAIN PERMANENTLY

Your Nov. 14 article "Windward crime wave alarms residents" accurately
pointed out the shortage of police officers here as well as the sad but true
criminal effects of the "ice" epidemic upon Windward Oahu. As a health-care
provider, may I add that this drug has similarly affected the mental
health-care community as well.

There are financial and resource costs to ice use, beyond the most obvious
costs of crime and the effects upon the families of people using ice. Ice
induces biochemical changes in the brain that mimic mental illness, and
eventually these changes are permanent. The mental-health community has seen
a major onslaught of people in psychiatric crises induced by ice use.

The Honolulu Police Department needs the fiscal resources to recruit good
police officers to handle the crime problem caused by ice use. Our
mental-health resources also need the proper attention and resources to deal
with this ever-growing problem.

Michelle Allen

Kailua