Posted on: Thursday, February 19, 2004
EDITORIAL
Ice crisis doesn't improve with age
As the state's first drug court judge, Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona ought to be an expert on treatment and law enforcement approaches to the drug crisis.
Presumably, that's why Gov. Linda Lingle put him in charge of her administration's response to the crystal meth epidemic.
So it's disappointing that after months of debate on the ice problem, including a three-day Drug Control Summit that brought in experts from near and far, Aiona and his team are still working on a plan.
No wonder treatment advocates and others are singing "It's Now or Never" in support of proposed legislation that would appropriate another $21 million to expand drug prevention, treatment and intervention services.
A joint House-Senate task force has completed a comprehensive plan that addresses drug prevention, treatment and enforcement. It's probably not perfect, but it's a good start.
However, the Lingle administration has made it clear it doesn't want to spend much more than what is budgeted for prevention and treatment, which is about $20 million, including $10 million in federal money.
Besides, they've got Aiona on the job:
"The Office of the Lieutenant Governor is beginning to implement the action planning phase of the strategy with the hiring of the state's drug control liaison," state Budget Director Georgina Kawamura told the House Finance and Senate Ways and Means committees Tuesday.
"Ad hoc committees will begin to work to establish specific goals, objectives and performance measures to verify the results of our efforts to combat the availability of and the harm caused by the use of illegal substances.
"At the same time, the Office of the Lieutenant Governor is working towards a coordinated data-collecting system for all organizations that perform prevention and treatment programs," Kawamura said.
In other words, we're looking at another year of bunches of people doing studies.
Each day that a drug addict is not getting treatment is a day he or she may be committing crimes, hurting family members and falling deeper into despair.
It's now or never, lawmakers. We can't wait another year.
