COM 0369.002 1996-1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

.ruN-sJU~ 81 '97 1103 HPD CID-KONA 326-4236 ~o=1e©89Seeoso P ,Pace iii July ~2, I997 ~ /30/7 Po&t-It" rand tax transmittal memo 70'71 a o1 v*ses . ~i G ~ ~ .!!rd P~o~ ~ 9S~- S S County Council Members county of Hawaii ~ ~ c 25 Aupuni Street Silo, Hawaii 9672Q Dear Council Members, I am here today representing both the Retail Committee from the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce and the Big Island visitor security Association. Ir_ regards to the issue of marijuana eradication efforts by the Federal, State and County agencies, we are firmly in support of their coatinaed operations. Drug related problems continue to be a source of $eadaahe for private business. !prom a retail perspective it was estimated that in 1995 shoplifting cost Big Island businesses 525.0 M, whereas employee theft accounted for 4-5 times this. Witb the younger employees we see alcohol mixed with illicit drug use, vncavered duzirig internal investigations. Due to the high COSt of drugs like marijuana(1!t e 56-9,000) one of the means to support such a habit is to steal from businesses that they work at. Ps a security spokesman, when we in the industry, use the word, '"Drugs" we also mean "Theft". :7$o can really afford it? There acs many stories that you hear about small businesses on ±he 3ig Island closing. one of the factors is internal theft. In our businesses we are also very concerned about produc- tivity. If employees have a $igh level of sick leave, or report to work late due to a drug problem, this we cannot tclarate. If an employee's production is low or the quality of work bad, we will not tolerate this as well. Ia conclusion, va do not nted to have this illness enter our workplace. .t i, not a question of if this moriles should bz accepted, it is more a question of how Can