Hilo DEA office officially gone!

[Frankie Stapleton]

Interesting story in Trib about Hilo's DEA airport office, et al, closed in October and they never even told the police! Funny good news...

[Kelena]

Good news? Perhaps. It is certainly amusing news. There was another thread complaining about the prevalence of meth in Puna. Puna is now a little safer for meth than it was. I know this will help alleviate some complaints about the helicopters, but the helicopters never bothered me although I am pretty sure those who fly the helicopters have been bothered by some of the things they have seen in my patio.

I think that if our national policy had been to eradicate meth, and not to be flying around looking for marijuana, it would have improved public relations and may have made a real difference. Hard to say. This is a highly addicted culture and I wonder if you could ever get rid of meth even if you threw gabillions at it.

[pahoated]

quote:

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Originally posted by Kelena
There was another thread complaining about the prevalence of meth in Puna.

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It wasn't a complaint, just a notification of National Geographic noting Hawaii is in the top ten states for meth use and they devoted much of Hawaiian ICE to Puna. They showed how locals are flying to Socal, meeting with Mexican dealers, have paid off airline personnel that don't have to go through TSA to strap bags to their bodies and how it is distributed. That is not a complaint, just acknowledgement.

This OP news is not new. DEA left quite awhile ago. The government works on fiscal year budgets, the end which is Sep. 30. DEA transferred the helicopter cannabis eradication program to DLNR before the end of the fiscal year. Their problem is DEA is federally funded and DLNR is state funded. It sounds like there are difficulties getting federal funds transferred to a state agency. The bottom line is DLNR doesn't have the money to run the helicopter cannabis eradication program. It seems more sane heads will prevail and look at the cost and effort of the cannabis eradication program using helicopters as highly out of balance with the severity of the substance.

Ice (meth) is the bigger problem, and as National Geographic said, the Hawaii problem is unique because it is multi-generational. Burglaries are not the only effect of meth addiction. The other is domestic violence. And combined with alcohol, essentially a death machine on the highways. It's all around Puna and if you don't see it, then you are wearing pink-shaded blinders.

[Kelena]

Something about this thread makes it difficult for me to type correctly. Anyway, I see that Mitch Roth, our new prosecutor, is making the eradication of meth a priority over simple marijuana possession cases (in keeping with the wishes of the citizens of Hawaii County). I wish him luck and success where few others have succeeded.