Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 20, Number 11, 1 Nowemapa 2003 — ICED OUT [ARTICLE]

ICED OUT

Hawaiians hit hardest by drug epidemic

By Naomi Sodetani

One fact that has become clear in all the recent discussion about "iee" is that Hawaiians, who make up about 20 percent of the general population, are being disproportionately affected by the drug epidemic, topping statewide statistics as both victims and victimizers. According to the state Department of Health, the majority of people who have sought treatment for

addiction to crystal methamphetamine, or "iee," at state-funded health centers in the past five years are of Hawaiian ancestry. In addition, Hawaiians suffer the highest rate of incarceration as a group in the nation. "When you look at the stats on Hawaiians, the official number is 40 percent in prison," says political science scholar RaeDeen M. Keahiolalo Karasuda, who is researching the disproportionately See ICE on page 5

ICE from page 1 high arrest and incarceration rate among Hawaiians. "But the reality is it's more like 80 percent, when you talk to anybody who's been in the facility. What does that say about our society, if Hawaiians are only 20 percent of the population at large, but 80 percent in prison?" One well-known Hawaiian who has eome to embody the tragedy of iee addiction was Bryant "Mackey" Feary Jr., lead singer of the popular 1980s group Kalapana, who eommitted suicide in prison four years ago after being sentenced to 10 years for a parole violation stemming from a drug relapse. "Let the world know how unfair the state of Hawai'i is to those of us with our specific type of medical problem," he wrote in his suicide note. Mackey's sister, Dancetta Feary, says her brother was one of countless Hawaiians who "got lost along the way. Nobody grows up to say, 'Well, I think I'll be a drug addict.' Everyone wants to excel in something, but when you don't feel good about yourself, sometimes this is the only thing you think you ean do." A former Honolulu poliee detective who was prompted by her brother's death to lobby for more humane responses to drug addiction, Feary has experienced the

issue from both sides. She says she is alarmed by the "hysterical" tenor of the current eall for a "war on iee" and fears that Hawaiians will be unfairly targeted if the issue, now high on the political agenda, results in a "get tough" focus rather than on healing communities. "Our society has to decide," she says. "Is drug abuse a puhlie health problem or a penal problem?"

One of the most important tasks, experts say, is to address the underlying causes that have made Hawaiian communities so vulnerable to devastating drug and aleohol addiction. "This drug is so seductive to people who have been marginalized," says Aliee Dickow, principal Hawai'i researcher for the federally funded Methamphetamine Treatment Project, whieh has tracked socioeconomic factors and treatment outcomes among iee users in eight cities. "It gives them energy, improved feelings of

confidence and feelings that they have all this power and are in control of their circumstances when they are not." Pam Lichty, president of Drug Policy Forum Hawai'i, says that demonizing drug users doesn't work, but instead just perpetuates what she calls the "dark side of 'ohana" — a vicious cycle of poverty, unemployment, domestic violence,

criminal activity and imprisonment that has devastated many Hawaiian families. Pointing out that the state's prison budget rose 164 percent from 1985 to 2000, Kat Brady, coordinator of the Community Allianee on Prisons, says that without treating the underlying social factors that give rise to drug abuse, taxpayer dollars are being wasted that are desperately needed for education, social services and other areas that strengthen communities. "We have to provide a variety of

treatment options, and also a whole web of services — educational opportunities, skills training, housing," Brady emphasizes. "Otherwise, you ean give somebody the best treatment in the world, and if they don't have a plaee to live, a job and hope for the future, believe me, they're going to go back to what they know." Some community-based treatment centers have incorporated Hawaiian cultural practices into their recovery programs. Nonprofit programs like Ho'omau Ke Ola Mau in Wai'anae and Hale Ho'okūpa'a on Moloka'i both integrate Hawaiian values and practices like ho'oponopono and working in taro lo'i to restore inner harmony to reconnect addicted clients with the 'āina and their community. Programs like these approach issues like self-esteem from a cultural perspective, Ho'omau Ke Ola Mau director James Siebert told The Honolulu Advertiser : "The question is: How do you build that back up? From a cultural perspective, it's building their sense of identity, who they are as a Hawaiian." "To me, there has to be the cultural component to treatment and services," adds Brady, "because you need to reach people where they are." ■

" This drug is so seductive to people who have heen marginalized. Itgives them energy improved feelings ofconfidence and feelings that they have all this power and are in control of their circumstances when they are not." — Aliee Dickow, researcher for the Methamphetamine Treament Project