NO SOLUTION YET TO ICE PROBLEM

A year after Mayor Harry Kim declared an epidemic of methamphetamine
addiction on the Big Island, the county is no closer to identifying specific
actions needed to counter the scourge of ice.

No concrete steps have been taken as the data from police and social service
agencies show increasing numbers of arrests for property and assault crimes,
cases of spousal and family abuse, and increasing numbers of school children
admitting to using ice.

But the perception of inaction on the part of county government is just
that, said Billy Kenoi, the mayor's executive assistant in charge of
marshalling resources to fight drug abuse on the Big Island.

"Yes, things are bad. Yes, we've got to scramble," Kenoi said. Born in
Kalapana, educated on Oahu and once an aide to U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye,
Kenoi has placed all the county's hopes for solutions in a single gathering
scheduled Aug. 27 on the Kohala coast.

Under the auspices of Kim, Kenoi lobbied Inouye to convene the Aug. 27 "Ice
Summit" on the Big Island. More than 300 invited political, economic, social
service, judicial, law enforcement and medical experts at the county, state
and federal levels have been asked to attend the meeting "to come up with a
strategy, a plan," Kenoi said.

"If the decision is made to build a youth treatment center, that's what
we'll do. If the decision is made to put drug counselors in every high
school, that's what we'll do. If the decision is made to beef up the police
force for more enforcement, that's what we'll do," he said.

The task of organizing participants and ensuring availability of funds to
finance programs resulting from the summit has taken almost a year to
develop, said Kenoi.

Hawaii as a state has the highest per capita abuse of the smokeable form of
ice, and the Big Island has the highest per capita abuse of all the state's
counties, said organizers of another ice conference that concluded Thursday.

"No single program, no single plan can work to stop this," said Don Bebee,
director of the Family Support Services of West Hawaii. "We must all work
together - law enforcement, social service agencies, the legislature, the
courts, the schools, the communities."

This week's conference at the Outrigger Waikoloa initially was planned to
accommodate 125 social service personnel, health workers and others involved
in frontline efforts to deal with ice - fueled family and social - health
problems.

More than 300 signed up for the two - day conference, almost overwhelming
the organizers.

"The reason everyone is showing up for these kinds of meetings is because
everyone is affected by ice," said Kenoi, who helped organize the meeting.

The ice conference is a good first step toward the ice summit, Bebee and
Kenoi said.

"The political will, the political resources needed to attack this problem
will be addressed at the (ice) summit," said Bebee. "We won't be able to
solve it without that."

Kenoi said the mayor's office did not want to convene a massive, multi -
agency meeting without having resources in place to fund programs suggested
at the summit.

"We didn't want to hold a summit without having the resources available," he
said.

Kenoi said Inouye's support for the war on ice is critical if there is to be
any sort of victory.

"The senator has $4 million in legislation and another $1.25 million in
process to fund initiatives to come out of the Ice Summit," said Kenoi.

"We didn't want to convene a meeting make a bunch of statements but take no
action and then have to sit back three months later and say, 'What
happened?'"

Kenoi outlined the three prongs of attack the mayor's office will present at
the summit.

"There's never been a collaborative effort," he said. "It's not going to be
just enforcement, just treatment, just prevention and reduction. It's going
to be all three issues: public safety, public health, public education."

The tentacles of ice addiction reach every level of Big Island society,
Bebee said.

A profound moment for this week's overflow audience at the ice conference
was the impromptu and public admission by reserve Kona police officer Roland
Kim of the challenges and personal costs of his son's six - year addiction
to ice.

"I wish I knew six years ago what I've learned today," said Kim. His 32 -
year - old son, is now in an intensive detox and behavioral treatment
program on Oahu. "Maybe I could have helped save my son back then," Kim
said.

"Six years ago, there wasn't the help that's available today," Bebee said.
"A year ago, there wasn't the multi - agency help we're seeing develop
here."