HONOLULU (KHON2) — Fentanyl may make national headlines, but meth remains the biggest drug problem in Hawaii.
Hawaii prosecutors said a 29-year-old Honolulu man was charged after a traffic stop on Wednesday, Sept. 10, led officers to seize 5.88 pounds of methamphetamine from his vehicle. Experts said they are now seeing generational meth abuse in the islands.
“Meth is king, and it always has been,” said Hawaii High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area executive director Gary Yabuta. “We’re seeing three generations of meth addicts at the E.R. these days. We have E.R. doctors telling me, they remember the grandparent of the clients they’re getting now, the patients that they’re getting now, for meth addiction, meth overdoses.”
Statistics from the Hawaii High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area reflect Yabuta’s notions and show 260 meth overdose deaths in 2024 compared to 103 deaths due to fentanyl.
The Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center agrees that meth addiction accounts for more of their clients, but they still provide fentanyl test strips for those who might not be ready to join their intensive outpatient services.
“Because to be honest with you, not everybody is ready to quit. And so just to kind of keep that safety factor in the harm reduction arena, we do offer those as well,” said WCCHC Malama Recovery Services’ primary women’s counselor Michelle Rogers. “We meet every client where they’re at.”
According to Honolulu police crime data, there have been 1,321 drug and narcotic violations so far in 2025, that averages out to over five per day, and experts said the majority of the product is not made in the Islands.
“There’s no reason to manufacture drugs here in Hawaii, like about 25 years ago. So our drugs come in. They’re imported into Hawaii, and the Mexican cartels are the ones that do it the best and cheapest,” Yabuta said.
A lesser-known drug that has caused at least seven local deaths in the last three years is Xylazine — experts said it is a horse tranquilizer that has the unfortunate nickname of the ‘Zombie drug.’
“It eats through your skin, it goes into your body,” Rogers said. “It has made its way towards this way. I won’t say that it’s not on the island. However, I have not seen or heard about a lot of it over here.”
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