EDITORIAL
Show us the money for the war on ice

Last year, a 13-year-old Maui boy was caught showing a classmate his stash of crystal methamphetamine. This was not his first drug-related brush with the law, and he was more than ready to enter a treatment program.

But the wait was at least six months. His parents and teachers worried he'd never survive the wait and would get into worse trouble. Fortunately, he had an aggressive support network, and strings were pulled so that he could move up the waiting list.

In these matters, you see, timing is everything. But most kids are not so fortunate.

According to the Joint House-Senate Task Force on Ice and Drug Abatement, some 5,000 adolescents in Hawai'i who need treatment for addiction to crystal meth and other drugs do not receive it.

Which is why we're pleased to hear that the legislative task force charged with mapping out a strategy to combat Hawai'i's ice epidemic has placed a priority on intervention and treatment for teenagers.

In a report released yesterday, the panel recommends the state spend more than $21 million on the war on ice, including:

• $10.7 million to boost adult drug-abuse treatment programs, with a priority given to women of childbearing age, pregnant women, parents with young children in the home and Hawaiians.
• $4.5 million to expanding school-based drug treatment programs to the intermediate school level to identify school dropouts.
• $3.6 million for youth drug-abuse prevention programs.
• $1.2 million to expand Drug Court programs.
• $850,000 to treat first-time nonviolent drug offenders as an alternative to incarceration.
• $300,000 to study the impact of illicit meth labs on Hawai'i's natural environment, particularly the groundwater supply.

In addition, the study calls for an 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.

It all sounds impressive, but the fact is, we won't know how serious the state is about winning the war against ice until we see a financial commitment.

The report says nothing about where the money will come from. Surely, that should be the next step: identifying funding sources so that we can expand treatment programs and reduce the waiting.

We're losing ground to this powerfully addictive drug every day; we simply don't have the luxury of time.