QUESTION: What ever happened to the Hawaii Meth Project? ANSWER: The project, launched last June to combat methamphetamine or "ice" use among teens and young adults, has had "overwhelmingly very, very positive" response, says the executive director. A just-completed school survey will provide the first comparative data since the project began, said Cindy Adams, adding it will take awhile to tabulate the results and analyze the data. However, she said the project's outreach volunteers have met with more than 4,000 teenagers statewide and been to 40 or 45 schools, as well as after-school programs and meetings in the community. [continues 348 words]
Data for pregnant women on the Big Island suggest about half of the island's 37,892 children under age 18 were exposed before birth to alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use, researchers report. The findings also indicate that of about 2,200 deliveries on the island each year, almost 1,100 infants are born exposed. "We have to find out why this is happening and what effect this is having, especially on children," said Dr. Ira Chasnoff, a pediatrics professor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, in a telephone interview. [continues 625 words]
State Department of Health budget cuts for the fiscal year ending June 30 include money for several HIV/AIDS programs. About $40,000 is being cut from Gregory House Programs, Hawaii's only statewide HIV/AIDS housing provider; $110,000 from two Life Foundation prevention contracts; and $157,000 for the Community Health Outreach Work Project to Prevent AIDS. The position of HIV/STD prevention coordinator, held 19 years by Nancy Kern, also is being eliminated and she is moving to another Health Department branch. [continues 443 words]
Pregnant Women Get Health Care for Their Babies and Help in Leaving Meth Behind A program providing health care and drug treatment for pregnant women addicted to crystal methamphetamine is succeeding "beyond our wildest dreams," says Dr. Tricia Wright. The clinic's pre-term birth rate is 7.7 percent -- well below state and national averages of 12 percent, she said. Advocates say the government-funded program is money well spent. "Given that each pre-term birth costs taxpayers in excess of $56,000, we as taxpayers are getting our money's worth," said Wright. [continues 313 words]
Binge-Drinking Trend A Surprise Crystal methamphetamine use in Hawaii is continuing to decline after reaching a peak in 2005, said Keith Yamamoto, chief of the state Health Department's Alcohol and Drug Division. Marijuana is still the preferred illicit drug in Hawaii for adolescents, with alcohol running second, he said. Jeffrie Wagner, executive director of the Bobby Benson Center for adolescents, agreed that there has been a decline in the use of crystal meth, but he noted, "When the law cracks down on one drug, the drug users just switch to another." [continues 628 words]
Although marijuana for medical purposes is legal in Hawaii, patients authorized to use the plant are being hassled by law enforcement agencies and others, said Maui Rep. Joe Bertram III. The major problem is patient access to marijuana, a gray area in the seven-year-old law, Bertram (D, Makena-Kihei) said yesterday, announcing legislation to "tighten it up with better management." One of his measures (House Bill 2678), being heard today by the House Health Committee, would authorize the state Department of Health to develop a secure growing facility on Maui for medical marijuana. A facilitator would make space available to patients or caregivers for a total of as many as 98 plants at one time. [continues 476 words]
A Carpenters Union Spokesman Likes The Idea For On-Site Safety Saliva could replace urine as a means of testing for drugs in the construction industry if a measure moving through the Legislature is approved. Building and union representatives at a Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee hearing yesterday strongly supported the Senate Bill 1636 SD1 "to ensure workplace safety." State Health Department, Diagnostic Laboratory Services and Clinical Laboratories of Hawaii representatives cited many concerns about saliva drug testing. Judiciary and Labor Chairman Clayton Hee, (D, Kahuku-Laie-Kaaawa-Kaneohe), said he expects to advance the measure with some amendments suggested by the Health Department. [continues 410 words]
The Study Of Patients At Queen's Confirms What Doctors Knew Of The Dangers Of "Ice" A study of 221 patients at the Queen's Medical Center confirmed what doctors here have long known: Methamphetamine use causes heart trouble. The risk of cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle, was nearly four times higher in methamphetamine, or "ice," users than in nonusers, researchers reported in this month's American Journal of Medicine. "The problem was, for 10 to 15 years everybody knew methamphetamine caused heart failure," said Dr. Irwin Schatz, professor of medicine and cardiologist in the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine. [continues 557 words]
More Treatment Beds Should Go To Women, A Visiting Expert Says Drug courts "are a mixed bag," says a nationally noted researcher and advocate of drug policy reform. "It's always good to offer alternatives to incarceration, which is the worst thing you can do for a drug problem," says Corinne Carey, deputy director of Break the Chains: Communities of Color and the War on Drugs. But two things are wrong with drug courts, she said in an interview. They are less likely to be effective if a person does not want treatment or is forced into a program that does not work for them, she said. [continues 477 words]
The facility is awaiting state funding and will offer substance abuse treatment to isle women A pilot health clinic is planned in Kaimuki to provide prenatal care, substance abuse treatment and other services to pregnant Hawaii women who use crystal methamphetamine. An estimated 5 percent to 6 percent of all pregnancies here -- about 1,200 a year -- involve women who use "ice," said Dr. Tricia Wright, a UH assistant professor of obstetrics-gynecology and pilot clinic director. Only about 100 treatment slots are available on Oahu for pregnant women who abuse drugs, Wright said. [continues 568 words]
Hina Mauka's Families In Crisis Program Helps People Face Tough Issues Statewide Treatment Program Began With 1 Man THEY WERE strangers, gathered together in fear and frustration because they didn't know what to do about family members addicted to drugs. Meeting in Aina Haina, the group included seven parents, a husband, two sisters with their mothers and a family friend. Alcohol was involved in three cases; crystal methamphetamine or "ice" dominated the others. Five or six people regularly attend Hina Mauka's weekly Families in Crisis classes at the Church of the Holy Nativity but on this night only two had been there before, said facilitator Jill Pargoe. [continues 1473 words]
Business and government leaders recovering from drug addictions need to speak out to "unmask the stigma" of addiction, an expert told about 400 health care professionals. William C. Moyers, son of television journalist Bill Moyers and a recovering addict for 16 or 17 years, addressed the professionals at a recent meeting at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa. His message, titled, "Meeting the Challenge: Treating Addiction in the 21st Century," was that recovery is possible with treatment, said Myron (Andy) Anderson, executive director of Hina Mauka, which provides residential and outpatient treatment to more than 400 residents daily. [continues 272 words]
A Proposal to Transfer a State Program Won't Be Granted A Hearing A Senate bill to transfer the state medical marijuana program from the Department of Safety to the Department of Health appears stymied this session. The Senate passed SB 2641, SD2, on a vote of 22 to 1, with Sen. Cal Kawamoto (D, Waipahu) the only opponent. But Rep. Ken Ito (D, Heeia-Kaneohe), House Public Safety and Military Affairs Committee chairman, said he does not plan to hold a hearing on the bill. [continues 423 words]
Terri Hurst is looking for anyone who has had experience, concerns or problems with the state's medical marijuana law. Hurst is studying the program for a master's degree in social work at the University of Hawaii. "In the past two weeks, I realized, wow, this is hopefully going to be a lot bigger than I expected," Hurst said. Hurst earned a bachelor's degree in sociology at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., and has been in Hawaii for three years working as a residential counselor for Child and Family Service. [continues 138 words]
The Big Island Has The Most Patients Listed In A Program That Tracks Medical Marijuana Use Three years after Hawaii legalized the medical use of marijuana, more than 1,000 patients are registered to use and grow the plant. The latest breakdown by the state shows the Big Island has 513 patients; Kauai, 259; Oahu, 139; Maui, 121; Lanai, one; Molokai, three; and Niihau, three, for a total of 1,039. Nineteen physicians on the Big Island have recommended marijuana, 13 on Kauai, 15 on Maui, 32 on Oahu, and none on Lanai, Molokai or Niihau. [continues 920 words]
The Visiting Specialist On Drug Abuse Warns Of Mental Impairment A neurologist recognized internationally for research on the effects of chemicals and drugs on the brain says he expects to see increased neurological damage because of drug use. "I really worry down the road what we're going to be facing in our population," said Dr. Neil Rosenberg, University of Colorado clinical professor of medicine, holistic doctor and founder of the International Institute on Inhalant Abuse. Hawaii is considered the "crystal methamphetamine (ice) capital" of the nation, and Rosenberg said, "Methamphetamine is going to be one of the culprits." [continues 698 words]
Hawaii's Programs Are Good But Underfunded, A Noted Author Says Hawaii politicians need to battle substance abuse with treatment based on science and research, says an internationally recognized authority in the field. "Addicted people are sick people who need to get well, not bad people who need to be punished," Terence Gorski, consultant on substance abuse, mental health, violence and crime, said in a recent interview. "Anyone who says drug treatment doesn't work is highly misinformed." Gorski was a key speaker and trainer at conferences sponsored by the Pacific Institute of Chemical Dependency at the Japanese Cultural Center last month. [continues 257 words]
Long-Term Treatment And Prevention Are Needed, Advocates Say Brain-damaged crystal methamphetamine (ice) users should be in prison where they can't hurt anyone, says City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle. "When their brain is already damaged, isolate them, incapacitate them, then treat them," he told four legislative committees yesterday. "It is not acceptable social policy to have them running around." Carlisle urged lawmakers to allow drug testing of students to identify those who use ice and give them early treatment before they get into trouble. [continues 648 words]
Federal Funds Will Help Local Researchers Study A Devastating Addiction Hawaii, the "crystal meth capital of the country," is one of six sites selected for a national study of treatments for crystal methamphetamine (ice) addiction, says Dr. William Haning III, University of Hawaii psychiatry professor. Psychiatrists participating in the study hope to develop a treatment program and research structure that could support a clinic for ice addicts as a spinoff, Haning said. Haning and Dr. Barry Carlton, also a UH psychiatry professor and chief of psychiatry at Queen's Medical Center, are principal investigators of the Pacific Addiction Center, a program of the John A. Burns Medical School and Queen's. [continues 856 words]
Compared with Asia, Hawaii is almost a "paradise" when it comes to controlling HIV among people who inject drugs, says a world-renowned specialist who evaluates the Statewide Syringe Exchange Program annually. The number of syringes exchanged here, which is critical to reducing human immunodeficiency virus, is "going off the charts," said Don Des Jarlais, research director at the Chemical Dependency Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. The number jumped dramatically from 193,000 in 1999 and 219,000 in 2000 to 348,000 last year, he said. [continues 398 words]
