HILO -- Natural Law gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Adler has reached a plea agreement that could keep him from serving time in jail for two sets of marijuana charges.

But it will also mean he will not be eligible to run for governor when he is sentenced Sept. 4, said his attorney, Michael Green.

Chief Elections Officer Dwayne Yoshina has said posters will be put up at polling places saying Adler is not an eligible candidate once he is sentenced for a felony offense.

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Two letters to the editor assert there is no marijuana shortage (Letters, "No pakalolo shortage," HW, 8/14). Are these people still hitting the pipe? I'm no M.B.A., but this is a simple economics concept that even George W. could follow.

The scarcity of supply, caused by Green Harvest's success, has driven the price of marijuana sky-high. While it is clearly still available to those who can pay the price, it is so expensive the people might choose another cheaper drug. Ice for example. The evidence of the success is the incredible rise in the cost of marijuana since inception of Green Harvest. This is much more than anecdotal evidence.

Matthew Dougherty

[end]

To say that there is a "shortage" of marijuana due to eradication efforts is misleading. (Honolulu Diary, "Ice vs. pot," HW, 7/31). It would be more accurate to say that pot is difficult to access in Hawai'i. While there is pot available for those who choose to seek it out and pay for it, its inflated price leads drug users to seek cheaper, more accessible drugs such as methamphetamine.

During Prohibition in the early part of the last century, there was no "shortage" of safe, smuggled foreign liquor, primarily from Canada. However, the illegality of such booze made it prohibitively expensive, leading most drinkers to guzzle homemade moonshine and whiskey, which could cause blindness and, in some cases, death.

If you've got the money, you can get whatever drugs you want. However, marijuana prohibition and the price inflation it causes lead most people to seek cheaper highs, which often are more damaging to the individual and to society than marijuana use.

Spike Bradford

[end]

The federal Weed & Seed program, which recruits area residents to help reduce drug activity and related crime in their neighborhoods, officially kicks off the 'Ewa portion of its program next week.

As part of Aloha United Way's "Day of Caring," organizers will hold a 7:45 a.m. kickoff breakfast Sept. 4 at Geiger Park off Geiger Road.

Some 1,000 volunteers will participate afterward in a community-wide cleanup at area schools and parks, the first step in a program that will set up neighborhood patrols and crime prevention programs in 'Ewa.

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For any parent, the fear of their child getting involved with drugs is great, and the reality overwhelming. All of your hopes and aspirations vanish, as you try to cope, and "fix" the problem, amid pangs of guilt that as a parent you had somehow failed along the way.

Last August, I received a sobering briefing from retiring Big Island Police Chief James Correa and Mayor Harry Kim about the rising crystal meth or "ice" problem in their county. I asked for the meeting after learning about community meetings where residents came together throughout the island to talk about the devastating impact of crystal meth on their families. This drug knows no class boundaries -- it affects rich and poor, educated and illiterate. I was saddened by what I learned.

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Any cop and all the other drug-war soldiers will tell you they are tough and can handle any violent criminal. They look danger in the face, laugh, and say "Come on, give me your best shot."

If you have ever seen a cop with the testosterone flowing at an arrest or seen one inside a jail where the cop is a god, you know looking at them in the eye is worthy of a beating. So why are authorities so consumed with keeping marijuana illegal?

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Contrary to Robert Sharpe's assertions in his Aug. 10 letter, the drug war not only promotes but protects families and their values. Children and family members of inmates and non-incarcerated illegal drug users are put in harm's way every day by their association with drug users.

A 1997 Journal of the American Medical Association study reported that "people who do not use illegal drugs but live in households where such drugs are used are 11 times as likely to be killed as those living in drug-free homes," and "drug abuse in a home increased a woman's risk of being killed by a spouse, lover or close relative by 28 times."

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Maui Crime Stoppers Solves Crimes Through Help From The Public. Rewards For Information And The Satisfaction Of A Safer Community.

For citizens who are sick and tired of the crimes they see happening, the Maui Crime Stoppers offers a real chance to get involved.

Maui Crime Stoppers, like America's Most Wanted, depends on community involvement to help get criminals off the streets. According to the MPD, Crime Stoppers deals primarily with unsolved felony crimes and fugitives wanted in felony cases. And the Program really does help bring criminals to justice.

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THE ISSUE - Teenagers say buying marijuana is easier than buying beer or cigarettes, according to a national survey.

TEENAGERS for the first time say it is easier for them to buy marijuana than beer or cigarettes, and they are trying marijuana in increasing numbers, according to a national survey of a thousand 12-to-17-year-olds. The report says too many parents have helped make the problem as bad as it is by doing nothing, failing to realize and exert their influence in positive ways.

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The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai'i (ACLU) and the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i (DPFH) have joined a chorus of voices throughout the state protesting the unwarranted harassment of legally registered Big Island patients who use medical marijuana.

"Since July 8th there have two raids on Big Islanders who hold medical marijuana certificates issued by the Department of Public Safety," said Donald Topping, President of DPFH. "This intrusive behavior on the part of the Hawai'i County police is an unconscionable attack on sick people who have been certified by a physician and are using marijuana legally to treat their ailments."

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Charles Memminger's Aug. 14 "Honolulu Lite" column states that the Hawaii Green Party is "pro pot." If Memminger had read the party's platform, he would know that this statement is not true.

Memminger writes that "many Republicans and Democrats ... consider the Green Party a huge bowl of flakes with a few nuts thrown in for good measure." Actually, I have heard some Democrats make that statement about the Republican Party. Come to think of it, the Republicans say the same thing about the Democrats. Oh well, each to his own bowl.

Jack C. Morse

[end]

Tony Fisher makes the mistake of assuming that punitive marijuana laws actually deter use (Letters, Aug. 15).

The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European country. Yet, America is one of the few Western countries that wastes resources punishing citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. The short-term health effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to the long-term effects of criminal records. Unfortunately, marijuana represents the counterculture to misguided reactionaries in Congress intent on legislating their version of morality. In subsidizing the prejudices of culture warriors, the U.S. government is inadvertently subsidizing organized crime.

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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.

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HONOLULU (AP) -- Gov. Ben Cayetano said Thursday he won't ''second guess'' Big Island police in their enforcement of marijuana laws, which has included raids on homes of people with state permits for medical use of the drug.

''The matter will be adjudicated in court,'' he said.

The Hawaii Legislature two years ago became the first to pass a law approving the possession and use of marijuana for medical purposes. Under state rules, certified patients are allowed to possess up to three ounces of marijuana and to grow up to seven plants -- three mature and four immature.

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Some Council Members Say The Police Should Focus More On Crystal Meth

HILO -- Angered by police raids on medical marijuana users, some Hawaii County Council members strongly urged acting Police Chief Lawrence Mahuna this week to refocus drug enforcement on crystal methamphetamine.

"What I see is a paramilitary force outside of civilian control," Councilman Curtis Tyler told Mahuna, who became acting chief after the retirement of Chief James Correa last week.

"Get real," Tyler demanded Tuesday during a Council committee meeting.

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Thank you for printing Louis Silverstein's Aug. 12 letter on the war on drugs. I pray for the day when everyone knows the truth about drugs and the laws against them.

Every self-conscious personality has the right to experiment as a matter of personal experience in order to learn the facts and truths of life because there is no substitute for personal experience.

All of the laws against drugs are far worse on society than the use of any or all of the drugs. You cannot legislate morality. None of the laws against all of the crimes on all of the books has brought or will bring an end to crime because everything is a matter of choice at base level and you never know for sure how a person is going to choose. You and your exercise of your God-given power and freedom to choose the moral rather than the immoral is what keeps you from doing anything "wrong."

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Some of what Louis Silverstein says makes sense (Letters, Aug. 12), such as teaching people to be users and not abusers, and that there is corruption at all levels when it comes to drugs and money.

Do we need to combat drugs? I believe the answer is yes and no. We should weed out the "batu" houses where "ice" dealers push a drug that can form a habit that is perilous, unlike habitual pot smokers.

Let's leave pot alone, it's a natural. Cocaine can be used in a healing fashion as long as it is not free-based and is taken in an appropriate manner to enhance performance in certain areas of life. But, a major qualification - everything is habitual and all things can become an obsession.

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A year after Mayor Harry Kim declared an epidemic of methamphetamine addiction on the Big Island, the county is no closer to identifying specific actions needed to counter the scourge of ice.

No concrete steps have been taken as the data from police and social service agencies show increasing numbers of arrests for property and assault crimes, cases of spousal and family abuse, and increasing numbers of school children admitting to using ice.

But the perception of inaction on the part of county government is just that, said Billy Kenoi, the mayor's executive assistant in charge of marshalling resources to fight drug abuse on the Big Island.

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Editor:

After reading the West Hawaii Today article about "Operation Green Harvest" it occurred to me that the police always report on the number of plants destroyed (and often their estimate of the street value), but they never report on what it costs for them to fly around in helicopters and hike through the hills instead of pursuing murderers, rapists, burglars, and other real criminals.

I know they receive grants and special funds for these activities. Some of our large beer brewers often contribute to these programs. But the fact is these are still police who would otherwise be patrolling our streets and serving and protecting our citizens.

They seem to be losing sight of the "serve and protect" philosophy.

David Lane

Santa Cruz

[end]

Louis Silverstein's Aug. 12 letter is one of those really misinformed letters to the editor that makes drug enforcement even more difficult than it should be. Marijuana is addictive, not physiologically but in an even more subtle and damaging way, psychologically. Clearly, Mr. Silverstein's main interest is selling his book not in impartially evaluating the enormous damage being done by the drug user as well as the drug abuser.

There was a New York Times article from London in the same issue of The Maui News which said it all: A user said he doesn't see pot as a drug at all. Then he goes on to say, "I still have my balance. Although sometimes days go by -- and before you know it a week's gone by, and you haven't done anything you're supposed to do, like get a job." I would bet every penny I've got that that person would adamantly insist that he is a "user" and not an "abuser." Silverstein says, "responsible, respectful, and disciplined use of marijuana affords one the insight . . ." Does the person noted above sound to you like he is getting any insight?

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