Rehab services
Are you aware there is no place for people who are addicted to substances such as alcohol or opiates to formally “detox” prior to admission to any substance abuse program?
Every substance rehab program in the islands has a wait list, and sometimes it is weeks or even months before someone can be admitted. They are told to just wait it out.
Alcohol withdrawal is potentially life-threatening, but unless they are in “active withdrawal,” they cannot be admitted to a medical facility, and it is not appropriate to admit them to an acute psychiatric unit for this either.
With the current epidemic of substance use/abuse in our community, it is up to you and me to continue to ask our state legislators why hasn’t something been done, if funding is available? We all know what a problem substance use is, and it touches every ohana to some degree.
Please contact your elected officials to let them know we demand these services with available funding be implemented. Why, then, has this been overlooked during this crisis?
A. Gary Gardner
Hilo
Missing Obama
It is irrefutable that the Russians deliberately interfered in our 2016 elections. This, according to the indictment by special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s team as profiled on the front page of the Tribune-Herald on Feb. 17.
Despite taking an oath to protect the country and defend the Constitution of the United States, not a peep from President Donald Trump blasting the Russians for their nefarious efforts, nor praise for the intelligence community in the stupendous job they did at “the Russia thing.”
Has it been barely more than a year since we had a president who took the oath of office seriously and represented the office with dignity, grace and respect?
Wow, do I miss the days of a President Barack Obama, who never verbally abused certain racial groups, never talked trash about certain countries, never hired staff with questionable credentials, always respected the rule of law and never met Stormy Daniels.
Kerry Meyer
Hilo