Ten years ago frustrated Hawaii residents waved signs, held town hall meetings and raised a chorus to demand a war on "ice" — crystal methamphetamine.
Hawaii’s meth problem was described at the time as the worst in the nation.
Public officials responded with millions of dollars in funding that helped generate scores of ice-related busts, rooted out drug houses and provided more drug treatment than ever before.
Today, while the problem doesn’t make the headlines it used to, officials say crystal meth, or ice, continues to torment Hawaii.
"Ice is the No. 1 drug threat in Hawaii," says Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro.
Hawaii’s ice problem is just as bad as in years past and possibly worse, added William Haning, a University of Hawaii professor of medicine and a psychiatrist specializing in addiction.
Consider these statistics offered up by Kaneshiro’s office:
» In 2013, Hawaii law enforcement officials seized 343 pounds of ice, the highest amount in at least eight years.
» Nearly 80 percent of the crimes linked to drug trafficking or drug abuse that year had a direct connection to methamphetamine abuse.
» Of the 120 drug-related deaths in Honolulu in 2013, more than half were linked to crystal meth abuse.
Crystal methamphetamine has plagued Hawaii going back to the 1980s, having reached Hawaii’s shores first through the Asian market before it took off on the U.S. mainland.
The problem escalated quickly. At Drug Addiction Services of Hawaii, now Ku Aloha Ola Mau, demand for treatment went from cocaine to ice within a two-week period in the late 1980s. The agency responded by creating a crisis hotline and an intensive outpatient program.
The addiction percolated through the islands before finally exploding in the early 2000s. In 2003 and 2004 there was a series of town hall meetings, high-profile "ice summits," legislative hearings and sign-waving demonstrations across the state.
Lawmakers responded with an unprecedented $14.7 million allocation to the ice problem.
Further inroads were made into the epidemic after the government cracked down on the over-the-counter sale of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, ingredients in over-the-counter cold remedies and both chemical precursors to meth.
With access to these drugs curtailed, the business of cooking meth in homemade labs was severely hamstrung. In fact, there was only one meth lab bust in Hawaii in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Clandestine Laboratory Seizure Report.
Law enforcement officials said crystal meth comes to Hawaii today from superlabs in Mexico, operated by the drug cartels, and from labs on the West Coast. Today’s crystal meth is a potent, highly concentrated form and available at a relatively affordable price, they said, with the product transported to Hawaii in parcels, body carriers and the mail.
"Law enforcement has to be just as imaginative as the bad guys," said Gary Yabuta, director of the Hawaii High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a partnership of federal, state and county law enforcement agencies. "It’s a never-ending battle."
While Hawaii doesn’t have the worst problem in the U.S. anymore, Yabuta said, the amount of ice seized by law enforcement in recent years has remained fairly steady — averaging more than 200 pounds a year — and is more than would be expected from Hawaii’s population.
"That’s a lot of meth, especially when you only need a minute amount to get high," he said.
Another major concern, he said, is growing abuse of prescription painkillers. On the mainland, heroin has risen in popularity as a cheap alternative to painkillers.
"Hawaii is dealing with ice as much as the East Coast is dealing with heroin," Yabuta said. "Heroin hasn’t become a major concern here yet, but it’s on our radar."
Yabuta, former police chief of Maui County, said rural Oahu and the neighbor islands remain particularly vulnerable to ice, the street name for smokable methamphetamine.
Lisa Cook, director of Ku Aloha Ola Mau, said she’s seen a recent spike in ice abuse in Puna on Hawaii island, where Ku Aloha has a treatment center.
Cook said workers involved in needle exchange programs also report an increase in patients who shoot up ice to get a better high. The problem is those folks are also at greater risk of getting hepatitis C and HIV.
Alan Shinn, executive director of Coalition for a Drug Free Hawaii, said the ice problem is still going strong, in part because ice is more potent and remains pretty easy to come by.
As far as treatment is concerned, he said, meth and alcohol are still No. 1 and 2 in Hawaii.
At Hina Mauka in Kaneohe, the residential program has a 40-person waiting list.
"People are banging on the doors to get in," said Alan Johnson, executive director. "They’re really sick."
Johnson gave credit to the sign-waving campaign 10 years ago that resulted in more funding for the ice war, including millions for drug treatment.
"It opened doors and changed direction," he said. "Sadly, it takes so long for huge change."
Johnson said some meth users have learned to game a fragmented system that now sees 5 percent of the patients generating 50 percent of drug treatment costs. "The hospitals can’t afford it."
Fortunately, he said, government and health industry officials are communicating and considering ideas that could lead to changes.
Kaneshiro, who organized an international drug trafficking summit for prosecutors in 2011, said one of the reasons today’s ice epidemic doesn’t have a high profile is that drug trafficking is more often than not prosecuted in federal court, where prosecutors can win harsher sentences.
Kaneshiro said his troops are handling fewer ice-related cases, while the big cases are handled by the Hawaii High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force for federal prosecution.
The prosecutor also said people don’t always realize ice is involved in the violent crimes that occur here in Hawaii.
"People aren’t looking at why the crime happens," he said. "They just look at the crime. People don’t make the connection."
The Hawaii meth project was begun in 2009 with the aim of reducing meth use among teens through public service messaging, public policy and community outreach.
The program has been going strong with its "Not Even Once" campaign, but Georgianna DeCosta, the Hawaii Meth Project’s interim executive director, said program officials started hearing more incidents of meth once again at the end of 2014.
"A couple of communities reached out to us, saying that they were seeing increased use in their area and particularly with their youth. We are addressing those needs now, but what it tells us that this isn’t going away easily," she said.
The program recently finished a new survey of Hawaii teens. Key findings include the fact that the teen perception of meth being dangerous even with one or two uses has increased and is strong, but conversations with parents are only just above half.
"A new generation of young people is coming up through the schools, and they may be unaware of the blight our island community faced 10 to 15 years ago," she said.
"Even if some of them have family that have been addicted or are suffering now, they may not know just how terribly dangerous this drug can be, even with one try. As long as this is an issue, Hawaii Meth Project will be here to help young people and communities to be empowered against meth."
