Inherently Different

The One About Law & Order on Maui

I’m not really sure how the police work on the rest of the islands since my experience with them is strictly as a tourist. Since I’ve been living on Maui though, I can say that Maui’s police seem to be less than enthusiastic about erradicating the Ice epidemic. A few nights ago right outside of our apartment complex, some people were parked smoking Ice and they were approached by some police officers. Apparently, after taking their paraphenalia and drugs, they let them go. I’ve heard this same story from others I’ve met and talked to about the lazy attitude of the police here on Maui. I’m not sure if all the police on Maui have such a lazy attitude when it comes to methamphetamine, but apparently on the southside police have more important concerns that stopping what is now an out-of-control problem that affects people from all walks of life in Hawaii.

The beach that I play volleyball on three times a week has a whole gaggle of bums who sell Ice to people who walk up or drive up and buy from them in broad daylight. I have yet to see a police officer even bat an eyelash.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to photograph these guys selling. Fuckers.

3 thoughts on “The One About Law & Order on Maui”

  1. Ice is a serious problem in Hawaii. My friend used to live there and her boyfriend (the father of her two little girls) was a serious Ice addict. It is scary stuff, makes them really aggressive. It took us years to get her to finally leave him.

  2. I think you have to live on an island to truly appreciate why it has become such an epidemic. The short answer is that the islands are small, isolated, and, well… boring.

    For the low income and uneducated, Ice is a remedy for everything that ails them. For a few dollars, they can escape whatever problems that exist in their lives.

    Ice is cheap since it can be easily manufactured on the island with chemicals that are readily available. The relative seclusion of 65% of the urban areas that don’t see tourist traffic makes it easy to manufacture in private homes. The combination of price, availability, demand and the small population on each island makes Ice a difficult problem to address. One of the main reasons I hear when asking why the police don’t do something about the problem is that most of the police officers are either friends with or related to many of the abusers.

Comments are closed.