• Drug-abuse prevention Drug-abuse prevention Recently released statewide crime statistics show a decline in drug arrests. This decline shows that raids that involve federal law officers working with local police departments in Hawai‘i might be paying off, along with better
• Drug-abuse prevention
Drug-abuse prevention
Recently released statewide crime statistics show a decline in drug arrests. This decline shows that raids that involve federal law officers working with local police departments in Hawai‘i might be paying off, along with better education about the dangers of drugs.
Apparently, the threat of being arrested for manufacturing, distributing or dealing drugs on the street is greater now then it was a year or two ago.
However, the problem of drug abuse among our teenagers remains a problem. This problem is both social and criminal. Drug abuse leads to stealing to support drug habits, and affects not just the user but his friends and family as well as all of our island society.
Drug users are likely to need help later in their lives, be it a long-term room in prison, counseling, or welfare support, which might also involve supporting the user’s immediate family.
The simple fact that a drug abuser could be something much more than he or she is is a damning fact. Lives that could have been successful in a variety of fields are wasted.
An added cost on Kaua‘i is the lack of a live-in, substance-abuse-treatment facility. The issue is a hot potato because of resistance by local residents to having a center nearby where individuals attempting to get off drugs are gathered. There are fears that those undergoing rehabilitation will continue to commit crimes in the immediate vicinity of the rehabilitation facility.
These fears are in part grounded in fact. It would be best to have a rehabilitation facility far from local neighborhoods. Unlike urban O‘ahu, Kaua‘i has remote locations mostly near agricultural lands where such a facility could be set up.
There is a need for a residential recovery facility, especially for local teens who get hooked on drugs.
With the recently announced financial support for grass roots drug-abuse prevention and rehabilitation facilities coming to Kaua‘i, it is time to start planning for a residential drug-treatment facility.
Prisoners at the Kauai Community Correctional Center at Wailua need to be helped before they are released, and moved seamlessly into a post-prison program where they can become contributing members of society, rather than drains on us all.
