Mililani joins fight against 'ice'

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Staff Writer

A groundswell of community involvement is rippling across O'ahu as town after town decides to band together to fight back against drugs — "ice," or crystal methamphetamine, in particular.

The group decided to kick off its anti-drug effort with a sign-waving on Wednesday and a community forum on Thursday, much as Kahalu'u has done since taking on its ice problem in mid-March.

In Wai'anae, Wahiawa, Waimanalo, Princeville, Kaua'i, and throughout the Ko'olauloa area of Windward O'ahu, residents are undertaking similar efforts or considering doing so.

Windward residents continue to keep their momentum alive by holding weekly activities including a sign-waving in Kahalu'u and Ko'olauloa yesterday, a lunch potluck at Hau'ula Beach Park on Monday, a Neighborhood Security Watch training session in La'ie next week and a presentation about new drug laws at the Ko'olauloa Neighborhood Board meeting in June.

"They're catching the wave," said M.P. "Andy" Anderson, chief executive officer of Hina Mauka, a treatment center in Kane'ohe. "I think they're seeing they can retake their communities."

Hawai'i's ice problem is labeled the worst in the nation, and the health, family and criminal problems associated with it are forcing communities to face an issue that has until recently been denied. More and more families are affected and they are turning to politicians, police and service agencies for solutions.

Anderson has been involved in helping to plan a number of community anti-drug meetings.

He likened the growing community involvement to addicts recovering. After 20 years of burying their heads in the sand, the community reaches bottom and wants change, Anderson said.

"When the alcoholic or addict hits bottom, they're ready to do something," he said. "The communities are seeing it demonstrated in Kahalu'u."

And much like when an addict sees a friend sober up, "they're seeing an example of somebody recovering and they know they can do something."

The stories shared in Mililani yesterday were sobering: a student and her mother caught selling drugs to other students, dealers targeting school kids, people on drugs causing problems in businesses, and through it all a thread of denial.

"It's a hush-hush thing," said Jeannette Nekota, a social worker and chairman of the Mililani Mauka Neighborhood Board. "I tried to do something a couple of years ago when three boys died after going to a North Shore rave party. But it's really hard because nobody wants to talk about it."

People in Mililani tend to think they live in a safe town because it's an award-winning community, but it has problems, she said.

"In Mililani, Ecstacy is the problem," Nekota said. "The kids there have money. They target them at schools."

City Councilman Nestor Garcia, who is spearheading the Mililani effort, said he's hearing about the problem anecdotally and has no statistics on its severity.

"The No. 1 problem is it doesn't look like there's a problem," said Garcia. "We need to prevent it from getting worse."

Of the people from Mililani who seek help at Hina Mauka, 42 percent of the admissions from 2002-03 were there for ice addiction, Anderson said. Of the Wahiawa admittees, 71 percent have ice problems, he said.

A recent state drug-use study showed that Central O'ahu high school students participating in the study admitted to a greater use of alcohol and marijuana.

The 2002 Hawaii Student Alcohol Tobacco, and Other Drug Use Study showed that of the students participating in the study 38.6 percent of the seniors admitted using alcohol within the past 30 days. Some 16 percent of the seniors said they had used marijuana within the 30 days and 2.9 percent said they had used methamphetamine.

In Wai'anae, families are reluctant to turn other family members in for drug abuse, said Luella Tinoga, permanent housing coordinator at Ho'omau Ke Ola, a residential/outpatient program for substance abuse.

"It's getting everybody on board today and showing that if we don't impact today then our tomorrow is doomed," she said.

"That is what taking the blinders off is all about," said John Reppun, with KEY Project, one of the coordinators of the Kahalu'u town-hall meetings. "People come out of denial, take off the blinders and find they have way more strength than they ever realized just by talking to one another."