Lawmakers get 'ice' education
By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
State narcotics officials want tougher laws for parents who manufacture drugs in their homes, more authority to investigate clandestine drug labs and more restrictions for the sale of items that can be used to manufacture or consume drugs, they told lawmakers yesterday.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The informational briefing was the first held by a joint House-Senate committee on crystal methamphetamine. The committee wants to determine how the Legislature can address concerns about the escalating "ice" crisis in Hawai'i.
Gary Shimabukuro of Laulima Hawaii, right, and Keith Kamita, state Narcotics Enforcement Division chief, brief legislators about the ice problem in Hawai'i.
Last month, the committee toured the Hina Mauka addiction treatment center.
Yesterday, Keith Kamita, head of the Narcotics Enforcement Division of the Department of Public Safety, and Gary Shimabukuro of Laulima Hawaii, which provides drug education, gave legislators a crash course in the effects of crystal methamphetamine and how it is manufactured.
Kamita told lawmakers that in Hawai'i, there are 30,000 hardcore ice users who consume almost 106 pounds — or $5.1 million worth — of the drug per day. An average user tends to use 1/16 of an ounce daily, spending about $170 a day. Kamita also said ice use was linked to 62 deaths last year.
To combat crystal meth production, Kamita said he wants state narcotics officers to have the same authority as federal agents when investigating clandestine ice labs.
State narcotics officers are prohibited from knocking on people's doors without a search warrant, asking people to voluntarily subject themselves to a search for drugs and using wiretaps when investigating suspected drug labs, he said.
Although federal agencies can deputize the state officers, Kamita argues that they should not have to go that route. "Hawai'i enforcement should have the same rules," he said.
Shimabukuro said he would like to see a law similar to one in California that would create harsher penalties for parents who manufacture drugs in their homes, a practice that leads to children having the chemicals in their blood streams. "What we need here is to protect the children in the labs," he said.
"The child endangerment in the lab alone is a severe penalty."
Better treatment options are also needed, Shimabukuro said. Often drug addicts need three months of treatment, but because of inadequate managed care they are only given seven days and released for outpatient services. He noted that ice users who have been awake for days will often sleep through the first several days of their treatment.
Since many of the ingredients used to make ice are readily available — particularly the decongestant pseudoephedrine — Kamita said he would like to see the 24-gram limit for purchase lowered to the 9-gram federal threshold.
He also noted that there are no restrictions against selling or possessing pipes and other paraphernalia, since as long as they have no drug residue on them, they can be represented as incense burners or vases.
Rep. Eric Hamakawa, D-3rd (Hilo, Kea'au, Mt. View), said lawmakers learned a lot during the session. "We're talking about the amounts that are presently being brought into Hawai'i, how easily it is manufactured, the dangers associated with the hazardous materials that are being dumped into people's yards. ... It was very eye-opening," he said.
The committee is planning on a series of other meetings to look at the education and treatment side of the ice issue, he said. "The goal is to come up with a comprehensive package we can present to the House and the Senate."
Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
