EDITORIAL
Drug abuse symptom of other dysfunctions

A three-day summit on how to combat drug abuse in Hawai'i has resulted in several recommendations that include toughening laws to make it easier to prosecute drug dealers, expanding treatment and coordinating efforts through a centralized bureaucracy or drug czar.

Particularly compelling is the suggestion that people seeking substance-abuse treatment receive the same insurance coverage as they would for other health problems. Whether it's of one's own making or not, addiction is a disease that requires counseling and, in some cases, medical intervention.

Rather than create new bureaucracies, we'd like to see the state make a major financial commitment to prevention, which includes alleviating the conditions that lead to drug abuse, such as unemployment and underfunded indigent healthcare and public education.

Anecdotal evidence suggests the communities hardest hit by the hyper-addictive and devastating crystal methamphetamine, or ice, are low-income rural communities where, for many folks, getting high is an escape from reality. That's not an excuse for smoking ice, but it's undoubtedly a contributing factor.

We've already lost a couple of generations to substance abuse. Perhaps we can salvage the next. Certainly, enforcement and prosecution are necessary to keep the smugglers and dealers at bay. But as long as adults and children become addicted to drugs, there'll be a demand for them. And that's what we have to address.

For decades, kids have used drugs because they're looking for an escape, need "Dutch courage" or feel peer pressure to get high. But they can easily be distracted from taking drugs or outgrow them if they have healthy and productive options.

Indeed, active kids are less likely to gain weight or take drugs.

Education is another big part of the solution. When schools are run down and teachers not sufficiently valued, morale is low. Moreover, it doesn't help matters when you cut arts and music programs and reduce the right-brain creative outlets that children crave.

The bottom line is, if Hawai'i sharply increased the money it spends on schools, it would most likely pay less in the long run for drug abuse and the crime and violence that come with it. We're all for a war against drugs in Hawai'i, as long as it doesn't ignore the socio-economic factors that lead to drug abuse.