Pubdate: Sun, 28 Aug 2005
Source: Athens Banner-Herald (GA)
Copyright: 2005 Athens Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.onlineathens.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1535
Author: Joe Johnson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

ATHENS MIGHT BE SURROUNDED BY METHAMPHETAMINE, BUT COCAINE STILL ROCKS THE TOWN

While methamphetamine use is spreading across Georgia like a cancer, 
cocaine still rules as the drug of choice in Athens-Clarke County.

"Where I come from, meth is the big thing," said Jason, a 19-year-old 
Commerce resident enrolled in a local drug rehabilitation program. "When 
you want coke, you come to Athens."

Jason's excitement over making Commerce High School's varsity football 
squad was soon quashed after a teammate told him about the wonders of 
cocaine. He skipped practice one day and came to Athens with $50 in his 
pocket to experience it for himself.

"A buddy of mine tried it the weekend before at a bar in Athens, and he 
really glorified and glamorized it," Jason said. "He had a few drinks and 
went into the bathroom and did some off the counter. He told me it was like 
you're on fire, and he was right."

Not long after taking his first hit of cocaine, Jason turned from a varsity 
football player into a common thug with a knife in his sock to rob drugs 
from a dealer. He was hauled out of his classroom in handcuffs for stealing 
his mother's ATM card and wiping out her checking account to support his 
coke habit, he said.

The drug quickly became the teen's master, causing him to lie, steal and 
rob - whatever it took to get money.

"Me and two friends robbed a dope man once," he recalled during a recent 
group counseling session with other addicts run by Advantage Behavioral 
Health Systems, which provides mental health, substance abuse and other 
services to Athens-Clarke and nine other counties. "We had a T-ball bat we 
called 'The Undertaker,' and I had a knife on my ankle, and we took him to 
a remote place outside of Athens, threatened him, took his bag of dope and 
tossed him out of the car in the middle of nowhere."

Six of the other people in Jason's group had similar stories to tell, 
ranging from sleeping with strange men in exchange for drugs, to stealing 
money from their families and pawning belongings, to robbery.

"I held a concrete block over the dope man's head while the others went 
through his pockets and took a quarter ounce of cocaine and some marijuana 
from him, said Pam, a 45-year-old addict who once thought more about 
supporting her habit than taking care of her children.

"When my children were walking out the door with DFACS (the Department of 
Family and Children Services), the only thing on my mind was where my next 
hit was coming from," she said.

Support groups usually meet in private sessions and members use only their 
first names to preserve their anonymity. This group allowed a reporter sit 
in on a session.

"I started with powder, but was told crack was the Devil's drug, that once 
you try crack you'll never go back," said Rusty, a 42-year-old mother of 
5-year-old twins. "It's true. The first high is incredible, but it starts a 
crazy chase. You're constantly chasing that first high, but you never catch 
it."

Another group member, Corey, said he first tried cocaine when he was 16, an 
age when he felt awkward in social situations.

"It makes you feel like you're Superman," he said. "It gives you confidence 
and courage to walk up to anyone and say anything you wanted."

Corey, now 20, said to support his habit he stole his mother's wedding ring 
and other jewelry, sold a $9,000 car she gave him for $500, and "stole just 
about anything I could get my hands on."

Because of its euphoric effects, Corey said, he continued smoking crack 
even after he suffered three cocaine-induced seizures since last November 
and nearly died.

Focus On Cocaine

The euphoric feeling is the allure of cocaine, crack cocaine in particular, 
which remains the worst substance abuse problem in Athens-Clarke County 
because of the many crimes connected to the drug, according to police.

Coordinator Cassandra Conton and counselor Kevin Guthas listen to a support 
group member speak about her experiences with cocaine during a recent 
meeting at Advantage Behavioral Health Systems1 Addictive Diseases Services 
Unit.

"The most prevalent drug by far is marijuana, but crack cocaine leads to so 
many other violent and property crimes by individuals involved in its use 
or distribution, which is why we focus our efforts on crack," said Lt. Mike 
Hunsinger, who supervises the Athens-Clarke Police Department's Drug and 
Vice Unit.

That focus by local police seems evident in the number of people held on 
meth-related charges in the Clarke County Jail on a recent weekday - none. 
In contrast, 35 people were in jail that same day on cocaine-related charges.

"As times change, meth is coming on strong in our community and counties 
surrounding us, but right now and in recent years, crack cocaine has been 
the No. 1 problem," Hunsinger said.

Although Athens-Clarke police couldn't provide statistics, Clarke County 
Superior Court Judge Steve Jones, who presides over the local Felony Drug 
Court, agreed with Hunsinger that cocaine remains the root cause of most 
crimes in the county.

"Cocaine is still the base problem," Jones said. "More than half of the 
cases that come before us are drug-related, and cocaine is involved 65 
percent of the time."

Crack addicts burglarize homes, break into cars, commit armed robberies - 
anything it takes to get money to support their addictions, Hunsinger said. 
More violent crimes, such as murder and aggravated assault, result from 
turf disputes between dealers, he said.

That is why for more than a year, the Drug and Vice Unit has teamed up with 
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to track down mid-level crack cocaine 
suppliers in Athens, and have so far made more than a dozen arrests on 
federal charges of possession of cocaine base, crack's main ingredient.

On July 7, authorities made one of their most aggressive attacks on cocaine 
when they arrested more than 80 street-level crack dealers during a 
pre-dawn sweep involving some 160 officers from 13 state, local and federal 
agencies.

Driven By Demand

One of the men who led the drug sweep was Phil Price, special agent in 
charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Canton Region Drug 
Enforcement Office.

Price had no idea why crack continues to be the drug of choice among so 
many addicts in Clarke County.

"The drug business is just that - a business," he said. "Crack will only be 
replaced in Athens when there's more money to be made selling methamphetamine."

According to the GBI official, the drug trade is driven in part by demand 
from students attending the University of Georgia, located near the heart 
of downtown Athens.

"The students come from all walks of life and different parts of the state 
and even out of state, so you don't see the standard trends that we've had 
in the rest of the state," Price said.

While crack remains the police drug unit's primary focus, Paul Moon, a 
counselor who runs group sessions for Advantage Behavioral Health Systems, 
said he's seen a more and more "cross addicted" clients, people who use 
both crack and meth.

Some of the addicts in Moon's group session said even though they started 
with cocaine and continue to smoke crack, they also graduated to 
methamphetamine, which produces a similar high at a lower cost.

In the same way experts refer to marijuana as a gateway drug to other, more 
powerful substances, addicts say cocaine was their entree into the world of 
meth.

Many users first turn to cocaine and other drugs because of peer pressure, 
a lack of self-esteem or confidence, Moon said.

"Those psychosocial reasons when certain people turn to drug use is their 
way of stress management, but its self-destructive stress management," Moon 
said.

"The reason I started using drugs is because it made me change the way I 
felt about myself," said Angel, a 32-year-old support group member who is 
on probation for possession of cocaine.

"But once you get some cocaine, you want to do all of it, no matter how 
much you have," she said. "When I was in a car wreck and drove down a big 
embankment, I finished smoking (crack) while I was sitting in the back of 
the patrol car. When I was in jail I vowed never to do it again, but when I 
was released, I was smoking again that same night."

Angel, who last smoked crack two months ago, said she would trade sex for 
drugs, and lost her job, home, even her child because of her addiction.

"If I took care of my son, I'd have to give up my partying." she said. 
"It's a very powerful drug. Just talking about it right now I can taste it 
coming up my throat."
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman