Posted on: Tuesday, October 15, 2002

EDITORIAL
Crystal meth 'epidemic' affects all in the Islands

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.