Isle meth project is ending just as we need it the most

Georgianna DeCosta, executive director of the Hawaii Meth Project, worries that the plague is coming back.

“A month ago we went to an elementary school along with an HPD program and spoke to fifth-graders,” she said. “When the students were asked who had seen a meth pipe before, more than 75 percent of the class raised their hands. Even the teachers and officers were shocked.”

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Hawaii was keenly aware of the scourge crystal methamphetamine brought upon families and communities. There was money to measure the scope of the problem, public outrage and media attention on drug-related crimes.

“Back then, a 5-pound seizure of meth was huge,” U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni said in an interview. “Now, 10 pounds is nothing, and the meth is pure and it’s cheaper.”

According to federal officials, a pound of meth sells for about $4,000 in California. On Oahu, a pound goes for $7,000 to $9,000, while on the neighbor islands, the price is between $12,000 and $15,000.

Remember when every whiff of nail polish remover made you think your neighbors were cooking batu? Now, for the most part, the drug is manufactured in superlabs in Mexico and brought in to the islands.

The idea of the “typical meth user” has changed as well. A recent state Department of Health study found more people over 50 picking up the pipe, and there is a new category of “functional meth users” — those who are able to work and maintain some measure of normalcy despite their drug use.

In the nation’s capital, all eyes are focused on the boom in heroin use, but here in Hawaii, meth is still, by far, the biggest problem.

“The largest single category of cases we file, 50 percent, is drugs. Of those, 97 percent involves meth,” Nakakuni said.

At one school she visited, DeCosta was asked by administrators to stand at the door and offer the kids rock candy as they filed in. When the presentation started, the first thing she asked was: “How many of you took the candy?” Almost all of the kids had. “How many of you are already eating it?” Several raised their hands. They were so trusting and unquestioning. “It was really a wake-up call,” DeCosta said.

The Hawaii Meth Project, which focuses on youth prevention, is in the process of shutting down. Initially funded by an anonymous angel donor, smaller donations have waned in recent years, and project officials decided to take action while the organization was still solvent.

The curriculum will be passed to another agency and available online, but two of DeCosta’s three staff members have already left for other jobs. DeCosta will finish reports in the next few weeks, and then she, too, will be job-hunting. She won’t walk away from the fight, though, and says she’s always willing to talk about the dangers of meth.

“It’s like an atomic bomb to the user with a mushroom cloud of destruction to the community,” she said. “No other drug has the power to destroy mind, body and soul.”

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.