WARN KIDS ABOUT CRYSTAL METH'S DANGERS

A National Survey Shows Men Arrested For Crimes In Honolulu Are More Likely
Than Arrestees Elsewhere To Be Users Of Crystal Methamphetamine.

CRYSTAL methamphetamine is a larger problem in Hawaii than elsewhere in the
country, but that may change. The ease and low cost of producing what is
being called the poor man's cocaine is increasing its appeal across the
country. Education may be the best way to combat this dangerous drug.

From January 2000 through last September 2001, 35.9 percent of all males
arrested in Honolulu tested positive for crystal meth, or "ice," a
percentage far above any of the other 36 cities included in a survey by the
U.S. Department of Justice. All other cities registered percentages below 30
percent. The survey shows it is increasingly the drug of choice in Western
states while cocaine and heroin are used more in the East.

The recent survey focused on male arrestees, but an earlier survey by the
same agency, the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice, found
that women law breakers may be even more attracted to the drug than men.
More than 40 percent of the women arrested in Honolulu in 2000 tested
positive for meth.

This is somewhat understandable, because crystal meth made its American
debut in Hawaii, where it was smuggled from Taiwan and South Korea during
the 1980s. Its use in the islands became widespread by the late 1980s and
distribution extended to California. Its use is reported to be growing
dramatically in the Midwest.

Kat Brady, Community Alliance on Prisons coordinator, suggests that
marijuana eradication efforts in Hawaii caused drug users to turn to crystal
meth. They found it to be relatively inexpensive, and it could be made from
over-the-counter cold and asthma medications containing ephedrine or
pseudoephedrine, and such ingredients as red phosphorous, hydrochloric acid,
drain cleaner, battery acid, lye, lantern fuel and antifreeze.

Clandestine "mom and pop" crystal meth laboratories have sprouted up across
the state, as many young people have gravitated to the drug. High school
seniors surveyed several years ago indicated that 7.5 percent of them had
tried methamphetamine, compared with 4.4 percent of 12th graders nationally.

Three-fourths of the Honolulu Police Department's narcotics and vice
resources are focused on crystal meth, and law-enforcement efforts cannot be
expected to increase. The FBI has reassigned 400 agents from drug
investigations to counterterrorism, and Director Robert S. Mueller III says
the bureau probably will curtail work on "stand-alone methamphetamine
cases."

Parents and teachers will need to take responsibility for warning children
about the addictiveness of crystal meth and the damage it causes to the
brain, central nervous system and other parts of the body. Homes and schools
are the natural front lines of this continuing war.