“Crisis on Drugs” meeting held at Kilauea

Kilauea residents appear to be rallying around the drug issue, and at a four-hour “crisis on drugs” meeting held Tuesday night at Kilauea School a panel discussion included talks on law enforcement, legislation, drug treatment, recovery, education and prevention.

“What we did was bring a few of the pieces together in a forum to give the community information,” said Maile Bryan, who organized the meeting with fellow Kilauea resident Meta Zimmerman.

Police officers spoke freely at the meeting, but handling questions with candor. At a similar meeting at Hanalei School last Tuesday, KPD Vice Narcotics Unit supervisors and officers displayed simulated drugs and drug paraphernalia and a slide show. The supervisors weren’t able to attend because they were investigating a drug case.

Councilman Mel Rapozo, KPD Vice Narcotics Unit Sgt. Dan Abadilla and D.A.R.E. teacher and clandestine drug lab investigator Ken Carvalho offered to meet with meeting-goers afterward to exchange telephone numbers to get answers to more directed questions.

Abadilla talked about “gateway” drugs including alcohol, tobacco and marijuana. The vice unit sees more low-level “street dealers,” not a few major players as there are with dealers of marijuana, cocaine or heroin, he said.

He added that in every major drug case investigated by KPD in the past eight months guns have been involved. Abadilla said: “Guns as we’ve seen in the past, have been used against people, even innocent people, families and against themselves.”

Carvalho talked about the D.A.R.E. program, which he teaches to students in grades 3, 5 and 8 at Kilauea, Hanalei and Kapa’a Elementary Schools. In grade 3, D.A.R.E. focuses on safety. In 5th grade, the focus is shifted to peer pressure. In the 8th grade students learn about making choices.

“If the program helps one, then it works,” Carvalho said. He challenged the nay-sayers who say the program is ineffective to attend one of his classes or a D.A.R.E. graduation.

“On the Mainland, D.A.R.E. officers are being taken out and replaced by SROs,” Kapa’a High School Resource Officer Mark Ozaki said. “They say it (D.A.R.E.) doesn’t work, because I make a lot of arrests, and all of those are D.A.R.E. graduates,” he said. Since last April 1, he’s made more than 300 arrests, but 78 are related to drugs or alcohol and many of the remaining are for offenses that did not occur at school.

One of Ozaki’s challenges is that school administrators and security guards have more flexibility to search students and their property without a search warrant or consent, though parents often complain about the method. Thus, they often catch drugs and alcohol on students, he said. Also, the island seems to lack substance abuse treatment or drug counseling for kids who get suspended from school on drug charges.

Mardi Maione, chairwoman of the Kauai Drug Free Coalition, said the gateway drugs are often “acceptable” in our community.

She pointed to the ripple effect caused when people have nowhere to get help, she said.

The coalition’s long-term goal is to open some kind of drug addiction recovery facility, whether it is a therapeutic living environment, clean and sober (halfway house), or residential treatment center.

“There are a lot of things we can do without money, but a lot of things require money,” Maione said. “As a community it’s our responsibility.”

“Treatment does work,” said Phil McLaughlin, a substance abuse counselor at Hina Mauka Recovery Center. Hina Mauka is the biggest drug treatment center on the island because it offers free services to some through a grant from the state health department and can refer patients to inpatient treatment on O’ahu.

The addiction disease is curable, said Hina Mauka family programs coordinator Nancy Swallow, who talked about the “enablers” in families who “do the right things for the wrong reasons.”

“You didn’t cause it, you can’t control it and you cant cure it,” she said. She asked people who have a family in trouble with drugs to come to a free family session held Tuesdays from 6-7:30 p.m., at the Hina Mauka center in Lihu’e.

“The shame is going out the window” once people start opening up and acknowledging the issues, she said.

Hina Mauka also offers in-school services. But it doesn’t offer inpatient rehab or detox services, which many say are vital in the addiction recovery process.

Mark Carey, a learning specialist and educator for about 30 years, said that kids “need to feel competent and connected.” They often take risks that reward their curiosity without understanding the long-term consequences, he added.

When kids are told not to use drugs but see the incongruity when people use coffee, prescription medication, sugar, herbal drugs, even alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, he said.

“They know and love and trust people who do these things are seeing them doing just fine in their lives. They throw out the information because they think they’re being lied to,” Carey said.

State House Representative Mina Morita (East and North Kaua’i) told of progress in gaining legislative support for the “Drug Strike Force” bill (HB 297), which is now before the Senate Ways and Means Committee after being introduced Jan. 17 by House Democrats.

Passage of the bill would establish a state-funded “strike force” to combat the sale and distribution of illegal drugs, especially crystal methamphetamine, otherwise known as “ice” or “batu.” The strike force would be funded by tobacco taxes and forfeiture money and it would be made up of retired and active law enforcement officers.

Talk of another meeting is starting, but many of those in attendance agreed that the county’s new drug program coordinator, Roy Nishida, should meet with those already involved to see how to continue such programs.

Staff Writer Kendyce Manguchei can be reached at kmanguchei@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 252).