Pubdate: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 Source: West Hawaii Today (HI) Contact: 2002 West Hawaii Today Website: http://westhawaiitoday.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/644 Author: Tiffany Edwards Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Note: For more on ice, medical cannabis and cannabis eradication in Hawaii go to http://www.mapinc.org/areas/Hawaii COUNTY TO ADD FOUR VICE OFFICERS, CREATE ICE TASK FORCE HILO - A councilman is moving to get four more officers on the street to combat the island's ice problem. Hamakua Councilman Dominic Yagong last week drafted legislation to transfer $215,000 from the County Council's "contingency relief" account to fund four positions in the Police Department's vice section, specifically for "a crystal methamphetamine task force." The contingency relief account includes funds trimmed from other county departments during the budget process, yet were not earmarked for a specific purpose and spent with the council's discretion. Yagong's bill comes a week before a methamphetamine summit in Waikoloa at which 300 participants are expected to brainstorm on how to combat the ice problem here. The summit is one of six the National Crime Prevention Council and the Drug Enforcement Administration have arranged across the nation. Representatives from both federal agencies are expected to speak at the summit, as well as U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D - Hawaii. As the mayor's executive assistant Billy Kenoi pointed out in a recent report to the mayor, "the fact that (the summit) will be held on the Big Island emphasizes how serious a problem we have and, more importantly, that we have the national and state resource providers' attention and commitment to helping us address this problem." Yagong wrote Mayor Harry Kim this week that police have said they do not have enough personnel "to effectively deal with this growing epidemic." "Our 10 vice officers in East Hawaii and eight vice officers in West Hawaii currently handle marijuana eradication, cockfighting, prostitution, other hard drugs, etc... in addition to dealing with the ice epidemic!" Yagong wrote. "This is an impossible task especially with the current explosion of ice abuse in our county. We need to support the vice section with more personnel, or simply stated, we will lose the 'war on ice.'" Yagong said four more officers for the Police Department are "not nearly enough personnel that is needed to battle hard drugs on this island" but added it is "a positive first step." "Hopefully other avenues of funding will come about during the discussions at the ice summit which could provide us with more personnel support from the DEA and other law enforcement agencies," Yagong wrote. He noted the County Council can fund positions, but the mayor has the authority to create positions. Meanwhile, Kenoi's report last month to Kim emphasized the need for more officers, and included a long list of needs for this county to effectively combat the ice problem. "We have to support the efforts of the community with resources. We need more law enforcement personnel, we need more prosecutors, we need more court staff, probation officers, treatment options, high - end/intensive treatment options including residential programs. We need a greater diversity of treatment options including cultural and faith - based treatment programs, vocational/rehabilitation programs, in addition to a whole range of prevention and education efforts." Also in Kenoi's report: - - Hawaii residents lead the nation for use in ice or crystal methamphetamine for the fourth year in a row, up from 4 percent in 1991 - - Big Island arrests for ice distribution increased 431 percent from 1997 to 2000 - - Big Island arrests for ice between 1999 and 2000 rose 84 percent, from 159 to 292 - - ice treatment admissions in Hawaii increased 44 percent in 1997 - - The Big Island in 1998 recorded a 50 percent increase in people meeting the criteria for needing treatment for methamphetamine use, from 690 to 1,200 - - In that same year, according to the Big Island Substance Abuse Council, the prevalence of frequent methamphetamine use among males, ages 18 to 24, more than tripled - - Child Protective Services indicates 85 percent to 90 percent of its caseload is ice - or drug - related - - A 1998 Family Court survey found 50 percent of women and 28 percent of boys admitted to ice use Incidentally, Yagong first considered a moratorium on marijuana eradication "to reallocate our manpower resources to combat ice and other hard drugs," he said Friday. "In doing research, I found that only 7 percent of the total man hours spent in the vice section was on marijuana eradication, so the manpower impact would be almost insignificant." Specifically, vice spent 2,400 hours, including 400 hours of overtime, on marijuana eradication in 2001 versus 37,000 hours of total manpower hours, Yagong said, having received the numbers from Lt. Henry Tavares, who leads the Hilo vice section. "If you truly want to have an impact, you have to create positions," Yagong said, including more DEA officers on the Big Island. Currently, one officer is assigned to the Big Island. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk