Gov. Linda Lingle wants to bring back 1,200 Hawaii inmates from Mainland prisons. A unique alternative to incarceration for inmates sentenced on Maui for drug-related crimes has been in operation for over a year. Maui inmates are placed on early release, via 90 days of in-custody drug treatment in Dorm 3 at the Maui Community Correctional Center. Treatment for these inmates continues while released from custody on early parole or while furloughed into community Drug Court supervision for up to a year with weekly visits to the Drug Court judge. [continues 128 words]
Gov. Linda Lingle wants to bring back 1,200 inmates from Mainland prisons. A unique alternative to incarceration for inmates sentenced on Maui for drug-related crimes has been in operation for more than a year. Maui inmates are placed on early release, via 90 days of in-custody drug treatment in Dorm 3 at The Maui Community Correctional Center. Treatment for these inmates continues while released from custody on early parole, or while furloughed into Community Drug Court supervision for up to a year with weekly visits to the Drug Court judge. [continues 128 words]
Karen Blakeman's Dec. 22 superbly informative article on crystal methamphetamine probably did not include the effect of the "ice" tragedy on regular mainstream families and employers because of its specific focus. Many of our friends and neighbors have suffered multiple episodes of home break-ins. We have seen many employers take big financial hits from workers who are slaves to crystal meth. I have great compassion for many of these addicted victims and criminals (except Christopher Aki, the man accused of Kahealani Indreginal's murder) and their families, and I pray that Lt. Gov. "Duke" Aiona's experience as a judge in this area will create long-term effective solutions. [continues 67 words]
Editor: Last Saturday morning I was headed north into Kailua for Christmas shopping and come upon one of the many recent seat belt checkpoints. It happened to be right in the midst of one of the worst traffic bottlenecks between Captain Cook and Kainaliu. One officer was positioned on the makai side as the spotter and three other officers had the entire road tied up with at least eight cars 'semi' - pulled over. I was then approached by an officer who proceeded to inform me that I did not have my seatbelt fastened "correctly" and that it was illegal in Hawaii to wear the shoulder portion under my arm. I was also enlightened to the fact that "I may as well not wear a seatbelt at all if I wore it incorrectly." I was then gallantly informed that I would be "cut one break this time" and directed to pull back out into the traffic. More easily said than done as the number of "offending vehicles" were hemmed in double along the crowded roadside. During the rest of my trip town ward I passed three additional checkpoints manned with no less than three officers each. [continues 238 words]
We have all been witness to the destruction of thousands of Hawai'i families and the deterioration of our social fabric because of the disease called "ice" (crystal methamphetamine) that is rampaging through our Islands. As U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo has pointed out: * - Hawai'i has the worst crystal methamphetamine problem in the country with approximately 30,000 Hawai'i residents who are hard-core users and as many as 90,000 who are "recreational" users. (That's one in every 10 of us.) [continues 283 words]
When Christopher Aki was charged with the murder of Kahealani Indreginal -- an 11-year-old who had come to think of him as an uncle -- many in law enforcement weren't surprised to hear he had used crystal methamphetamine. "It's not surprising at all," said U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo. "In fact, I've come to expect it. I'm never surprised when I hear it is a factor in these extremely violent cases." The use of the drug often called ice has reached epidemic proportions in Hawai'i. Its effects, some of which linger for years after use has stopped, include psychosis, paranoia, agitation and extreme irrationality. [continues 1011 words]
I was surprised and disappointed to see The Advertiser promoting a PDA game called "Dope Wars." The author apparently found the game to be a lot of fun and appropriate as an "adult business simulation." As a professor of international business and a concerned citizen, I regret that The Advertiser, an important source of information and education for the children and adults of Hawai'i, decided to promote this game. Drug addiction is a serious problem in our state. It destroys the lives of many individual users and causes great sorrow and complications for family members, friends and neighbors. Let's not pretend that any minor lessons to be learned about doing business are of more value than the potential damage caused by trivializing our drug problem. Norman Wright Hau'ula [end]
HILO - Big Island lawyer and Teen Court judge Cynthia Linet smoked marijuana every night for six months during her chemotherapy treatments for cancer in 1998, she told members of the County Council Tuesday in testimony opposing the marijuana eradication program. Linet was among 14 people who testified against "Green Harvest" which is funded by at least $500,000 annually in state and federal grants. Councilmembers won't address the program's funding until March, when they begin work on the budget. However, residents offered testimony at the Finance Committee meeting Tuesday when an October marijuana eradication report from the police chief was taken up. [continues 452 words]
Editor: Mr. Ackert's proposal for handling drug cases might actually work. However, I believe the death penalty would work even better. The cost of killing off the drug users would be lower than incarceration. There would be more children available for adoption and the population explosion would abate. Traffic would become lighter and with no drug users on the highways driving would be safer. And then, after we the righteous have rid the world of drug users we could kill off the drinkers. And the smokers. Then the meat eaters. Alfred Anonimau Kailua-Kona [end]
After initially reading a recent letter in WHT advocating the discontinuance of the marijuana eradication program, I was at first certain that the author was rather poorly trying to make the point that the time and energy spent on marijuana eradication would be better spent attempting to eradicate the "ice" problem. Either that or he was attempting to write something humorous. In either case, he failed to make his point and, regrettably, as I read on, I realized that the article must have been drafted by a loyal disciple of Timothy Leary, and that he must have been under the influence of some mid-altering substance to believe that a rise in the use of one illegal drug can be blamed on and justifies the elimination of a program designed to reduce the growth and use of another illegal drug. [continues 833 words]
Ray Gagner's letter to the editor attacked harm-reduction approaches to drug policy reform as the "peddling of dangerous policies" (Star-Bulletin, Dec. 6). Ask yourself this: What is your priority? Is it more important to keep drug addicts from getting their hands on drugs, or to keep them from getting their hands on your property? As much as 90 percent of the property crime in Hawaii is committed by addicts stealing to obtain the funds to buy illegal drugs. A policy that allowed addicts to register with the state and obtain drugs at low cost would end our property crime problem. It will not cure addiction, but neither has 90 years of criminalizing it. [continues 74 words]
Ray Gagner's criticisms of the Drug Policy Alliance and its safety first, reality-based drug education policies are all wrong (Letters, Dec. 6). It is not the DPA that is promoting dangerous policies, but the current drug prevention regime of scare tactics and misinformation that are dangerous to our kids. Young people know that marijuana is not heroin and experimentation doesn't inevitably lead to addiction. Shoving "drugs are bad" propaganda down their throats only erodes their trust in authority and the education system. [continues 112 words]
In regard to the Dec. 8 Focus piece by Loren Walker, "Prisons fail," you are to be commended for yet another article pointing out the failures our society has made in correcting criminal behavior. Incarceration alone will not stop a drug addict's need and its consequences can lead to further hopelessness when the ex-con has difficulty getting a decent job. When there is limited hope in achieving the good life, as a criminal record can prevent, it becomes easier to perceive hope in dope and the criminal activities that relate to it. Hence, the high rate of recidivism. Let's start building more treatment facilities instead of prisons. Drug abuse is bad, but the war on drugs is hurting us all. Steven Hurst [end]
Maui is to be commended for introducing much-needed alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders (The Maui News, Dec. 9). With violent crime continuing along a downward trend, the drug war is the principal reason the United States now has the highest incarceration rate in the world. A study conducted by RAND, a nonprofit research and analysis institution, found that every dollar invested in substance-abuse treatment saves taxpayers $7.46 in societal costs. There is far more at stake than tax dollars. The drug war is not the promoter of family values that some would have us believe. [continues 116 words]
Lorenn Walker's Dec. 8 commentary on a new prison is absolutely correct: Locking more and more people up will not solve our crime problems. Drug law violations and crime driven by drug addiction undeniably account for our exploding prison population. What we're doing is not working and we cannot afford the escalating fiscal and social costs of this approach. Ensuring enough easily accessible drug treatment is not only more cost-effective than prison, but would make a greater contribution to the well-being and safety of the entire community. Timothy McCormick [end]
It chills me when we as human beings consider "justice" and "compassion" to be "dangerous policies," as one letter writer suggested in his support of continuing the failed war on drugs (Star-Bulletin, Dec. 6). The "harm reduction" policies adopted by groups such as the Drug Policy Alliance focus on reducing the harmful effects of drug abuse on our society, not just on those who abuse drugs. Those who support the war on drugs would have us -- the tax-paying citizens - -- subsidize the punishment of anyone who associates with a federal list of illicit substances, both with more taxes and in the loss of peace that a Prohibition society incurs. [continues 67 words]
Inmates Get Honest In Jail Through New Maui Drug Court Program WAILUKU -- Sentenced to prison for stealing vehicles and possessing drugs, Erik Ekenberg is no stranger to incarceration. But the 35-year-old Kula man says his current stay at the Maui Community Correctional Center is unlike his prison terms of the past. For nearly three months, Ekenberg has undergone 12 hours a day of drug treatment while housed in Dorm 3, a 24-bunk jail dormitory designated only for male offenders participating in the Maui Drug Court. [continues 1497 words]
John J. Andrade Wanted To Do Well So Others Could Follow; Now He's A Leader WAILUKU -- When he had only six months left on his parole term last year, John J. Andrade could have done the time in jail and been free of further supervision. Instead, he decided to participate in a phase of the Maui Drug Court for nonviolent sentenced offenders, subjecting himself to another 15 months of meetings, classes, drug testing and scrutiny. And while at first he didn't plan to finish, Andrade said he soon realized that he was benefiting from the experience that began with 12 hours of daily treatment while he was incarcerated in a special dormitory at the Maui Community Correctional Center. [continues 720 words]
Your editorial on Marsha Rosenbaum of the Drug Policy Alliance betrays a lack of information as to what is going on today in the field of substance abuse prevention ("Teens need better advice about drug use than 'Just Say No,'" Star-Bulletin, Nov. 28). There is a large and growing body of social science research on what works and what does not in prevention. The prevention field advanced years ago from the scare tactics and "just say no" approaches that Rosenbaum denounces. A variety of research-based prevention programs is available to schools and communities that seek to shield youth from the dangers of drugs and alcohol. [continues 84 words]
HILO (AP) -- A marijuana advocate and former gubernatorial candidate must serve his full six-month term on felony drug charges before he can be released from jail, a Big Island judge has ruled. Jonathan Adler, 50, was convicted of marijuana charges in two separate cases and was sentenced in September to concurrent one-year prison sentences. At the sentencing, Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura said Adler would have to serve only half that time. On Tuesday, Nakamura denied a request filed by Adler's attorney asking the judge to release him three months early. [continues 68 words]
Inside Hawaii
