Hawaii County is set to receive $2.1 million from the state to stop underage drinking, the lieutenant governor’s office announced Tuesday.

The amount coming to the county is just $200,000 less than what the City and County of Honolulu will receive. The money is part of a 2006 federal grant awarded to the state to address underage drinking, Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona said in a statement released Tuesday. Aiona was unavailable for additional comment.

A spokesman said community organizations in each county will decide how the funding will be distributed. The allocations to each county were based on a complicated formula that considered equity between the four counties, population of 12- to 17-year-olds, the burden on each county and the magnitude of resources available in each county to address underage drinking, spokesman Travis Taylor added. The goal was to get each community to back up their funding request with data on underage drinking in the county and not to make all the spending decisions in Honolulu, he said.

According to a 2009 report by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Underage Drinking Enforcement Center, underage drinking cost Hawaii $188 million in 2007. That figure was calculated based on youth violence, traffic crashes, property crime, injury and alcohol treatment. Excluding pain and suffering costs, the direct cost to the state is about $89 million annually. The center ranked Hawaii’s costs as the fourth-lowest among the 50 states.

Additionally, the report cited Centers for Disease Control statistics showing about 36,000 underage youth in Hawaii drink alcohol each year. In 2007, 59 percent of ninth- to 12th-graders had consumed at least one alcoholic drink; 21 percent reported having their first drink of alcohol, more than a few sips, before they turned 13. Fifteen percent of high schoolers reported having five or more drinks in a row, the definition of binge drinking, in the last 30 days. Six percent had had at least one alcoholic drink on school property in the last 30 days.

Young people who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence and two and a half times more likely to become alcohol abusers than those who begin drinking at 21, the report said. In Hawaii in 2007, 809 people 12 to 20 years old were admitted to alcohol treatment, about one-third of all treatment admissions in the state, the report added.

The state ranks fourth in the country for alcohol-related motor vehicle deaths, according to a 2008 study.

Skip Miller’s sermon on the dangers of marijuana ( “Marijuana too damaging to be legalized,” Jan.  31 ) is a compendium of distortions and discredited drug war assertions.

The idea that legalization would increase substance abuse flies in the face of the evidence.  We were warned that legalizing medical marijuana would dramatically increase teenage use, but an authoritative UCLA study showed that teenage use has actually decreased.

Miller’s claim that cannabis is a “gateway drug” has been thoroughly undone by a number of scientific reports, including a 12-year study from the University of Pittsburgh.

And there is no medical evidence that cannabis causes cancer.  In a large study presented to the American Thoracic Society in 2006, even heavy users of smoked marijuana were found to have no increased risk of lung cancer.

There are a couple of good bills before the Legislature that would decriminalize marijuana.  They cite a report we commissioned in 2007 that found that Hawaii would realize millions in savings by decriminalizing pot; if we were to tax and regulate it, there would be substantial revenue.

Mr.  Miller should consider the approach we took to cut tobacco use – education.  Maybe he should begin by studying the evidence himself.

Pamela G.  Lichty, Mph President, Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii

There were 28 people who testified, all in favor of the LLEPCO. Everyone was there to remind the council of their responsibilities.

Although good questions were posed by Council members, nothing was resolved.

We appreciate all who showed up. The Council will hear us, but we must keep at it. We will keep you posted of upcoming Council meetings and any developments.

Cannabis legislation

With regard to Mr. LeGendre’s letter, (Tribune-Herald, Jan. 24) I respectfully clarify that the adult decriminalization bill introduced by state Sen. Kalani English before the Legislature will not legalize cannabis. Decriminalization will make possession of 1 ounce or less a civil proceeding like a traffic violation rather than a criminal one. The $100 fines will be directed to prevention programs that help at-risk families and provide drug counseling.

Decriminalization will free up space in our crowded prisons, unclog the courts, and allow police more time and resources to fight serious and violent crimes as it has in 18 states which have cities and county jurisdictions that have passed decriminalization laws.

It was disappointing but predictable that the County Council missed an opportunity to urge the state Legislature to pass a decriminalization bill. With the police and prosecuting attorney strongly opposed to decriminalization, it would be politically risky during an election year to vote otherwise, or so they think. It doesn’t seem to matter that the citizens voted for lowest law-enforcement priority.

Why do the police and the prosecuting attorney fight so hard to maintain the status quo? They are opposed to decriminalization because they are addicted. Not to pot, but to the federal and state grant money for cannabis eradication, a bloated budget, asset forfeiture and the many government jobs (police, prosecutors, judges, prison personnel, probation officers, etc.) that feed off the nonviolent victims of the cannabis war. The annual cost to Hawaii taxpayers is an estimated $6.2 million. Added to these costs are the defense attorneys, cost of court-mandated urine analysis, counseling costs and lost wages, and it burgeons into a huge business.

Sen. English said, “We’re in really tight economic times … so I thought it was timely to put this forward, because we don’t have the money.” Indeed.

Andrea Tischler

Hilo

Published: Sunday, January 17, 2010 7:54 AM HST

I am always reading that the Police Department leaders and the county Prosecuting Attorney’s Office keep insisting that they will continue to ignore the “Peaceful Sky” initiative because marijuana is still illegal under state and federal laws, and therefore they will continue “green harvesting” and harassing marijuana users.

I am under the impression that the Hawaii Police Department and the county Prosecuting Attorney’s Office are employed by the citizens and representatives of Hawaii County.

The police and the prosecutors are not employees of the state of Hawaii, nor are they employees of the federal government, and as such are legally bound to obey rules created by Hawaii County citizens and our representatives.

That means, by extension, they are in open rebellion against the citizens of Hawaii County. They will do what they want to do, and the citizens be damned!

Citizens need to be aware that if this rebellion is not put down, someday some civil rights organization will notice, and the cost of their lawsuits will make the Police Department hiring scam settlement seem like “chump change.”

J. Stoeckel

Keaau

Seattle, WA — Seattle’s new city attorney is dismissing all marijuana-possession cases, starting with those that were already under way under the old city attorney.

City Attorney Pete Holmes, who beat incumbent Tom Carr in November, said he dismissed two marijuana-related cases in his first day on the job, and several others are about to be dismissed.

In addition, his new criminal division chief, Craig Sims, said he is reviewing about 50 more cases. Unless there are “out of the ordinary circumstances,” Sims said, the office doesn’t intend to file charges for marijuana possession.

“We’re not going to prosecute marijuana-possession cases anymore,” Holmes said Thursday during a public interview as part of Town Hall’s Nightcap series. “I meant it when I said it” during the campaign.

Seattle voters approved Referendum 75 in 2003, making marijuana the lowest priority for local law enforcement. City records show that Carr still prosecuted many cases.

In the first six months of 2009, Carr declined eight of the 62 marijuana-related cases filed with his office, a city report shows. Of the cases he took up, marijuana was the only charge in 21 cases. In the second half of 2008, Carr dismissed 21 marijuana-related cases and filed 60 others. Of those, marijuana possession was the only charge in 20 cases.

Holmes’ policy change comes amid several state-level efforts to decriminalize or legalize marijuana.

A ballot initiative filed Monday would legalize adult marijuana possession, manufacturing and sales in the state. The Legislature is also considering two bills to decriminalize and regulate marijuana, or to make it legal in the state.

The drug would remain illegal under federal law.

Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Author: Emily Heffter, Seattle Times Staff Reporter
Published: January 15, 2010
Copyright: 2010 The Seattle Times Company
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/
URL: http://drugsense.org/url/k8wo8Yif

CannabisNews — Cannabis Archives
http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml

Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville testified at the recent committee meeting on marijuana decriminalization held by the Hawaii County Council. During his presentation against the resolution, he trumpeted the words of King James I, who in 1604 issued a proclamation about the health hazards of tobacco.

What Mr. Damerville neglected to mention was that the king did not throw people in jail for possessing a substance used by consenting adults. Such a policy would have filled the jails and reduced productivity across the land. Instead, he took a wiser course. He educated his subjects about the dangers of tobacco and he regulated and controlled its use by applying tax rates as high as six shillings and 10 pence per imported pound.

As a Canadian police officer visiting Hawaii for the first time, I was surprised by Mr. Damerville’s opposition marijuana reform. While off-duty, I volunteer with an international non-profit organization called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. LEAP is group of judges, prosecutors, police officers and correctional staff who seek to end the global war on drugs. We don’t support or encourage drug abuse, or breaking the law. However, we believe that a system of regulation would be more ethical and less harmful than prohibition. We seek gradually to legalize and regulate all drugs in order to minimize the crime, addiction, disease and death generated by the black market for illegal drugs.

Perhaps Mr. Damerville will consider joining us?

David Bratzer

Victoria, BC Canada