Pubdate: Mon, 16 Aug 2004
Source: Augusta Chronicle, The (GA)
Copyright: 2004 The Augusta Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.augustachronicle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/31
Note: Does not publishing letters from outside of the immediate Georgia and 
South Carolina circulation area
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

SUMMIT WILL EXAMINE NEW STRATEGIES TO BATTLE METH EPIDEMIC

ATLANTA -- If methamphetamine abuse is a disease in Georgia, maybe the 
beginnings of a cure can be found in Oklahoma.

That midwestern state made it harder to buy over-the-counter cold medicine, 
which is used to produce the potent methamphetamine. The result of 
Oklahoma's new law? Meth labs discovered by police dropped 75 percent after 
it was adopted last spring.

Solutions like that will be examined closely this week in Atlanta as more 
than 200 drug enforcement and treatment professionals meet to flesh out 
strategies for curbing meth use in Georgia.

Like Oklahoma and other rural states, Georgia has seen meth production 
mushroom in sparse areas where the toxic fumes created during its 
production go unnoticed.

"In 1999, my office worked one (meth) lab," said Phil Price, the Georgia 
Bureau of Investigation's special agent in charge of drug enforcement in 37 
North Georgia counties. "This year, we'll work over 100."

Georgia has passed new laws in recent years to damp the problem, but a meth 
epidemic persists.

In 2003, the Legislature passed tougher punishments for people who make and 
sell meth. It's a felony in Georgia to possess more than 300 
over-the-counter cold pills. It's also a felony to possess any amount of 
anhydrous ammonia, a common fertilizer, with the intent of making meth.

This year, lawmakers allowed prosecutors to hold parents and caregivers 
criminally accountable for reckless child endangerment in meth-related 
cases. The law creates a separate felony for making meth in the presence of 
a child.

While such law-and-order strategies could emerge during this week's summit, 
some attendees also want state decision-makers to focus on curbing demand 
through education and treatment.

Gwen Skinner, director of the Georgia Department of Human Resources 
division in charge of drug treatment, said more money is needed if the 
state is to keep pace with the growing number of meth addicts needing help 
to get off the highly addictive drug.

"(Meth) is significantly more potent than all the other forms of 
amphetamines," added Bruce Hoopes, addictive disease chief for the Division 
of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases. "This 
is not something you can quit using and come back to normal in two to three 
months. We need to try to hold onto these people as long as we can."

Summit goers will hear speakers, including Gov. Sonny Perude, then spend 
two days in working groups, devising recommendations for their communities 
and the state.

The governor's office hopes that conversations among police, drug treatment 
experts and lawmakers will produce some new ideas about stopping meth use. 
In Oklahoma, the cold-pill crackdown came after a similar summit.

"Methamphetamine abuse ... is an issue we would like to get ahold of prior 
to it becoming an epidemic as it has out West," said Rebecca Sullivan, 
policy adviser to Perdue. "There are a lot of people in Georgia who are 
addressing this problem, but they aren't necessarily working together, and 
they're not aware of what each other is doing."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake