ANTI-POT EFFORTS BOOST ICE USE

Marijuana eradication in Hawaii contributed to the increase in the use of
the drug "ice," according to a government study.

An aide to Mayor Harry Kim is scheduled to meet today with the principal
investigator of the three - year study for the National Institute on Drug
Abuse. The study gathered information from 450 methamphetamine users in
Honolulu, San Francisco and San Diego.

"It's the first study ever done that interviewed users in the community,"
said study leader Patricia Morgan.

Morgan, associate professor at the School of Public Health at the University
of California at Berkeley, was vacationing in Kona when she learned that
Kim's executive assistant, Billy Kenoi, wanted to meet with her to discuss
the report. Kenoi is helping to organize a "meth summit" on the Big Island
next month.

Morgan's 1994 report, some 200 pages long, found that the California
methamphetamine users were more likely to snort or inject the drug, while 86
percent of the Hawaii users smoked the crystal form.

"The use of ice in Honolulu had led to particularly serious physical and
psychological problems and significant social disruption in poor working
communities where it replaced marijuana, which had become scarce and
expensive due to eradication policies," states the report's four - page
executive summary. The summary noted that the "overwhelming majority" of
meth users in Honolulu began using the drug after 1984.

Marijuana eradication missions on the Big Island began in the late 1970's,
said Capt. James Day from the Hawaii County Police Department.

The methamphetamine report noted several influences on the "tremendous
growth" of ice in Hawaii after 1987.

"Residents were both pushed away from pakalolo, their staple drug of choice,
and pulled toward ice by a well organized marketing campaign by Asian
distributors," the report said. "Also, the overwhelming smokeable drug of
choice, marijuana or pakalolo, which has been grown and used throughout the
islands for many years, became the target of a government eradication
campaign.

"This drove up prices, drastically reduced availability and left locals
without their customary, and many would say, relatively benign, smoke."

The study said the majority of ice users binge on the drug for more than a
day, with most using it for two to five days without sleep.

The report found that Honolulu users consumed more of the drug than
California users, averaging 9.6 grams per month.

The report noted that violence was more prevalent in the Honolulu meth
users.

"Honolulu females were over twice as likely to engage in violent acts than
women in other sites," it said.

The report also found that 94 percent of the men in the study reported
committing crimes, as did 91 percent of the women.

The report said meth use in all three cities led to other consequences,
including memory loss, depression, isolation, paranoia, anxiety and
hallucinations.