ICE WARS: CHANGES NEEDED

Isle Gets $4 Million Infusion From Inouye For Strategic Drug Plan.

Any meaningful solution to the ice epidemic on the mainland or on the Big
Island will require wholesale changes in drug enforcement, prevention and
treatment.

That was the message brought Tuesday by the nation's top drug agent, and the
apparent consensus of more than 300 participants in the Hawaii Island Ice
Summit at Outrigger Waikoloa Hotel.

Sponsored by U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye and Big Island Mayor Harry Kim, the
conference turned away an additional 300 would - be participants, an
indication of the magnitude of the ice epidemic, Inouye said.

"This meeting is both a blessing and a curse," Inouye said. "In this
paradise, there's a terrible plague, a horrible thing to acknowledge."

Inouye brought $4 million to the summit to fund the Big Island's strategic
plan.

"That's the most (money) we've seen for any community so far," said Asa
Hutchinson, director of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.

Hutchinson, who has visited 26 states in the last three months with his
"Meth in America: Not in Our Community" program, outlined the Hawaii
statistics for the crowd in a morning: The majority of nearly 1,000 Big
Island children in protective custody due to parental ice addiction; 36
percent of all men arrested in Honolulu testing positive for ice; 49 percent
of all women in Honolulu testing positive for ice.

"Those are the highest statistics of any metropolitan area in the country,"
said Hutchinson.

The ice epidemic has overwhelmed previous official efforts to contain it,
much less stamp it out, said conference organizer Billy Kenoi, executive
assistant to the mayor. "We've found you can't use a cookie - cutter
approach to this," he said.

"We have to integrate prevention, treatment and enforcement" for any program
to be effective, said Hutchinson, a mantra echoed repeatedly during the day.
"We can't just wipe out a nest of drug dealers only to have another take its
place."

"There is no silver bullet," Inouye said. "I don't have the answer. The
answers will have to come from the community."

Summit attendees, who included recovering drug addicts, police officers,
prosecutors, educators, physicians and community leaders, spent most of
Tuesday in work sessions of 10 people each. They outlined the problem,
barriers, steps to solutions and resources to fund and staff potential
initiatives.

Kenoi said results of the work sessions will take four to six weeks to
collate and send back to participants for re - assessment. Only then could a
strategic plan emerge, he said.

The work sessions produced common themes.

"There is a lack of coordination around the island in tying resources to
community needs," said Dr. Fred Holschuh, a candidate for County Council and
spokesman for his group. "We ask the mayor to appoint a County Ice
Commission, with all nine districts represented to coordinate partnerships
with the community and the agencies."

Deputy prosecutor Mitch Roth, speaking for his group, noted the "lack of
adequate equipment to do drug analysis in the county crime lab. It's
outdated at least 10 years and there's a three - to four - month backlog ...
it could be months to a year before a case even gets to the prosecutor's
office."

Meanwhile, Roth said, the ice abuser is back on the streets.

Others spoke of the need to fire up a public awareness campaign like Mothers
Against Drunk Drivers, and the need for the public to stop treating ice
addicts seeking treatment like pariahs.

Most importantly, said Janice Brencick, RN, Ph.D., "we need to change the
philosophy that it's cool to be bad." Brencick suggested a county - wide New
Year's Eve celebration of the arts would as an alternative to an event
"usually celebrated by using drugs or being drunk."

To implement potential initiatives, the DEA's Hutchinson announced the
assignment of a full - time "demand - reduction" special agent for the
state, and a preliminary one - year commitment from the DEA to aid
implementation of any strategic plan resulting form the summit.

The problems stemming from ice addiction are urgent and horrendous, said
Holschuh, who retired last year after 27 years of emergency room medicine in
Hilo.

The violence against children when addicted parents attacked their own
offspring "was the worst I'd ever seen. Absolutely unspeakable," Holschuh
said.

"Ice is an insidious drug," Hawaii County Police acting chief Lawrence
Mahuna said during a mid - morning break. "The psychotic behavior of ice
addicts often leads to violence. Unlike heroin, ice can be almost
instantaneously addictive. Unlike heroin, a narcotic, ice is a central
nervous system stimulant - it's a party drug. Ice costs $200 a gram, the
same as heroin, but its effects can last for days. That's one reason addicts
like it - it's cost effective."

On the dais in the welcoming speeches, Mahuna told the crowd police in 1998
recovered 58 ounces of ice and arrested 58 people on possession charges. In
the last year, police recovered 292 ounces of ice and arrested 282 people.
Virtually all of the arrested individuals were distributors or drug dealers,
said Mahuna afterward.

Unlike the Honolulu police force, Big Island police do not have the ability
to track the percentage of violent criminals under the influence of ice when
arrested, Mahuna said. "But we believe it's about 20 to 30 percent," he
said.

Mahuna welcomed Inouye's suggestion that better technology to detect ice
would help local police.

Inouye was contacted by Kim last fall about the island's ice epidemic.
Inouye wrote to Hutchinson in June, seeking the DEA's assistance.

"The whole time, everyone has been personally committed to solving this,"
Kim said.