Newshawk: The War on Drugs IS
Terrorism
Here is
one distinction Hawai'i absolutely does not want: According to
U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo, our state has the worst crystal meth
problem in the nation.
At a federal commission hearing
over the weekend, Kubo told participants that as many as 40
percent of all people arrested in Honolulu tested positive for
use of this methamphetamine.
Kubo claims that as many as
30,000 residents of Honolulu are hard-core crystal meth users and
three times as many use it "recreationally." Crystal meth is
commonly involved in violent crimes.
The particularly
unsettling thing about crystal meth is what it does to the user.
Unlike many other illegal drugs, crystal meth tends to make a
person paranoid and violent. Specialists say it is also more
addictive that other drugs, including cocaine and
heroin.
All in all, not a pretty picture.
There are
many reasons for the rise of crystal meth in Hawai'i,
including the fact that we are a "gateway" state from the Far
East, where crystal meth has been manufactured and used as far
back as World War II.
Also, officials say the rise in the use
of this drug paralleled the growing scarcity and high cost of
marijuana following successful drives to tamp down, if not
eliminate, the marijuana trade in the Islands.
To the degree
this is true, it was a bad tradeoff because crystal meth has far
more potential to make the user harmful to others than
marijuana.
Ideally, of course, there would be no use of
illegal drugs in the Islands, from marijuana through crystal
meth. But that is unrealistic. Indeed, even if all illegal drug
use ceased today, there would still be social harm and work for
law enforcement and health authorities due to the abuse of
legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco.
It was impressive
that Kubo's prescription for dealing with this problem didn't
begin with more laws, more arrests, more sentencing and more
prisons.
Instead, he called for an increase in the quality
and quantity of treatment for drug users both in prison and after
release. He urged the creation of more residential treatment
programs as well as expansion of health insurance coverage beyond
today's maximum of 30 days -- hardly enough time.
Everything
Kubo suggested would cost money, certainly. But the investment
in saved lives and social order would be more than worth the
cost.
Far too often, policy-makers are more willing to spend
money on reacting to problems rather than on paying for
solutions. That might make raw political sense, in that throwing
money at problems produces immediate action; funding solutions
requires patience and a time frame that extends far beyond
the next election.
But Kubo is right. If we don't invest
now in treatment and prevention, this terrible
health epidemic will only become worse.
Pubdate: Tue,
15 Oct 2002 Source: Honolulu Advertiser (HI) Webpage:
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Oct/15/op/op02a.html Contact: letters@honoluluadvertiser.com Copyright: 2002 The Honolulu Advertiser, a division of
Gannett Co. Inc. Website: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/195 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Note: For more on ice and marijuana
eradication in Hawaii go to http://www.mapinc.org/areas/Hawaii
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