Prepared by an 18-member task force of legislators, the study calls for a multi-pronged approach that would shift more treatment costs to private insurers, allow families to force members into treatment without filing criminal charges, and toughen prison sentences for selling and manufacturing the drug.

"These solutions came from the community," said Rep. Tommy Waters, D-51st (Waimanalo, Lanikai), task force vice-chairman. "We went to every single island. We had people testifying from law enforcement, from the treatment side, from government, experts in health. ... We’re not just hitting it from one side, but we’re trying to hit it from all sides and that came from the community."

The panel made no specific recommendations about where the money should come from. But cash set aside for emergencies, including the state hurricane relief fund, should not be ruled out, said Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nana-kuli, Makaha), task-force co-chairwoman.

Treatment providers and others who receive state money should be required to quantify the impact it makes through strict new reporting standards, she said.

Hanabusa said there must be a measurement of the success or failure of particular programs so taxpayers’ money is not wasted. "We’re going to tie funding to a measurable result, and we’re going to get standardized results,"Hanabusa said.

The report calls for the removal of lifetime caps on treatment covered by insurers, so that serious substance abuse is treated in the same manner as mental illness.

"Ideally, full parity should be afforded to substance abuse since the Legislature has already concluded that substance abuse is an illness," the report says.

The recommended spending is far more than Gov. Linda Lingle has proposed to fight the "ice" plague, but includes some elements the administration has proposed, such as the expansion of Drug Court programs for some offenders.

The task force report opposes or falls short of endorsing the expansion of some law-enforcement powers the administration has supported, such as easier police wiretaps of private phone lines.

"Wiretaps are considered the most intrusive of all investigation tools used by law enforcement because the number of communications intercepted regarding private matters are substantially disproportionate to the communications that tend to reveal criminal activities," the reports states.

Prosecutors say the state wiretap laws impose so many requirements on authorities that they are rarely used, and state Attorney General Mark Bennett has called for them to be relaxed.

The laws require a court hearing on a request for a wiretap warrant, in which a court-appointed lawyer represents the interests of the public to oppose a warrant, and a judge decides whether to grant a warrant.

The task force "is willing to consider changes to the wiretap laws," the report says. "However, further information is required about examples of where law enforcement has lost prosecution opportunities ... "

But the report directly opposes a constitutional amendment to revive "walk and talk" programs at airports, in which officers question and sometimes search passengers deemed "suspicious," without their consent or explicit probable cause.

The practice, which was approved by the U.S. Supreme Court nationwide, was declared unconstitutional by the Hawai'i Supreme Court in 1992.

"Federal agents, and state and local law enforcement officials deputized as federal agents, already possess the ability to conduct 'walk and talk’ approaches as part of the drug interdiction efforts," the report states. " ... Moreover, the intrusion of innocent persons that may result from curtailing the privacy protections may lead to more erosion into the private lives of Hawai'i’s citizens."

Task force co-chair Melodie Aduja, D-23rd (Kane'ohe, Kahuku), said she was confident the Legislature will deal with the ice problem, adding, "I don’t think we have a choice."

"We cannot ignore this problem anymore," she said.

Co-chair Eric Hamakawa, D-3rd (Hilo, Kea'au, Mountain View), said: "I think the community is at a point where they’re demanding to see something happening, and we’re responding to what the community is asking for."

The report calls for:

• $10.7 million for substance-abuse treatment for adults.

• $4.5 million for early intervention and treatment of teenagers.

•$3.6 million for substance-abuse prevention focused on youth programs, schools and families.

• $1.2 million to expand Drug Court programs.

• $850,000 to treat first-time, nonviolent drug offenders as an alternative to incarceration.