Hawaii has its dark side, environmental problems from its volcanos and racial strife. I had a friend who went there to interview for law school at the university, and he went to a luau and was killed when some offended local person sucker punched him and gave him a brain aneurism. My friend was an avid photographer, and apparently that is an issue in Hawaii. It's not all hulas and surfing. Referencing the flavored tobacco issue, which crops up in all U.S. states and in other nations, we need to be our own lobby, point out the distinction between tobacco pipes and other forms of smoking, and make our pitch so legislators are aware of the difference, starting with demographics. As an aside, I have another friend who retired to Hawaii years ago and has had a pleasant and productive life there ever since, so there is certainly an upside. I worked closely with a Hawaiian in the veterans office at a N.C. university and learned a lot about the Islands. He had a lot of the verbal history of the place and was a fine story teller, many yarns about growing up in Hawaii.
