"Police: Meth is growing on Maui"
Economy driving many to sell, use, transport narcotics, experts say
May 25, 2009
WAILUKU - Crystal methamphetamine and other narcotics are showing signs of a resurgence on Maui, due to the dismal economy, according to a Maui Police Department vice officer.
As people find themselves unemployed and desperate, they increasingly turn to the drug trade to try to make money, said police officer Ken Doyle. Others start using drugs like meth to stay awake while they work multiple jobs to support their children. And addicts of all ages often say they started using drugs to cope with a dysfunctional or broken family life, he said...
"If the economy doesn't get better, (the drug problem) is going to get worse," Doyle said.
The Maui police had "intel" that drug traffickers were using the Hawaii Superferry to transport meth from Honolulu to Maui, before the ferry service shut down, he added. That presented an especially difficult channel to block, because Maui police didn't have jurisdiction over activities on the high seas, he said.
Meth is rarely manufactured in Hawaii but is usually smuggled into the islands from "superlabs" on the Mainland and in Mexico, said federal Drug Enforcement Agency investigator Linda Martin...
A big part of the credit goes to a law passed several years ago requiring drugs that contain pseudoephedrine, like Sudafed, to be taken off store shelves and distributed by pharmacists, with buyers required to show identification. The chemical is a critical ingredient in meth, and drug labs had been sending runners to buy up whole shelfloads of the congestion medicine before its sale was restricted, she said...
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