Twenty-five years ago, Crawford County narcotics investigators were trailing cannabis plants grown in local fields.

Now they chase the scent of scorched ether in the air - ether, ammonia and other toxins that are melted and burned in clandestine labs where methamphetamine is produced.

Since June, the Crawford County Sheriff's Office says it has seized 12 such labs and the people manufacturing meth inside them, up from one lab between January and May.

Chemical burns, flashover fires and a mobile home explosion led deputies to discover three operational drug-cooking workshops from Sept. 6 to Sept. 27.

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Dear Editor, I'm writing about Anastacia Cosner's thoughtful letter, "High school drug policy needs another look," Sept. 27.

As the parent of a 16-year-old, I can say that, ideally, my son will never use any illegal drugs. However, if he does use an illegal drug, I would hope it's marijuana and only marijuana.

Drug testing discourages this because marijuana is fat-soluble. As a result, marijuana stays in a person's system for up to several weeks. On the other hand, drugs like methamphetamines, cocaine and heroin exit the body within a few days because they are water-soluble.

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According to a study by Harvard professor Jeffrey Miron, the government will spend approximately $8.61 billion in 2007 on marijuana prohibition enforcement. Despite such robust government spending, current strategies have failed to curb marijuana consumption. In 2005, 16.9 percent of Americans surveyed in National Household Surveys on Drug Use and Health admitted to using marijuana in the last year compared with 13.2 percent in 2000. Data from drug treatment facilities indicate that marijuana abuse is also increasing.

According to a Drug and Alcohol Information System study, admission rates to drug treatment for primary marijuana users have increased by more than 162 percent since 1992.

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Macon officials are putting into place new drug-testing guidelines for employees, a little more than a year after a man was killed in a car accident involving a city worker who officials said later tested positive for marijuana and cocaine use.

The revised drug and alcohol policy, which expands the city's ability to perform random drug tests, will go into effect this week barring opposition from the City Council. A council committee already has signaled its acceptance of the plan, which does not require a formal vote of approval.

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Two years ago, stay-at-home mom Janie Fulghum was clueless about crystal meth and assumed her kids were, too.

Now, she knows the drug's street names --- ice, crank, go fast, devil, speed.

A neighbor's cry for help opened Fulghum's eyes to the drug underworld lurking outside her Loganville home. The woman, practically a stranger to Fulghum, needed help finding her 17-year-old methamphetamine-addicted daughter who had run away.

Fulghum's kids helped to educate their mother about the drug during the search. The rest she learned on the Internet.

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I would like to again share one of the good stories about drug-addiction recovery I previously wrote about.

It's the good ones I prefer to remember.

This one started with two sets of grandparents, each concerned for the safety of their shared grandchildren. Their children, married to each other, were addicted to methamphetamines and the local law enforcement had already been called in because of a domestic disturbance incident resulting from the drug abuse.

On the advice of one of the police officers, the grandparents jointly met with a local drug abuse activist about their concerns. The activist in turn referred them to a local faith-based drug recovery program. The grandparents managed to convince their children, with the help of an activist and counselor, that the program was necessary - -- for the sake of the grandchildren.

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Dear Editor,

In the article "Administrators try to keep school safe", there were apparent inconsistencies in the logic behind Camden County High School's tightening of their security on campus to keep students out of danger. All students have a right to feel safe and comfortable in their learning environment.

The administration reserves the right to randomly drug test any student suspected of drug use, and a refusal to submit to such a test would be perceived as an admission of guilt. This is a dangerous violation of student privacy and independence. Especially in the case of marijuana, drug tests do not accurately measure impairment, and have been proven to be inconsistent, often times resulting in false positive results. The active chemical in marijuana, THC, can remain in one's system up to 45 days after exposure. While "harder drugs" (such as cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, and other commonly abused prescription drugs) have average detection times of two to five days.

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As an athlete at Chestatee High School in northwest Hall County, Zach Bennett already is subject to the county school system's random drug-screening policy. As a trumpet player for the school's band, he wouldn't mind seeing the policy expand to other extracurricular programs at the county's high schools.

"It's good to be fair," said Bennett, a 16-year-old junior.

A systemwide committee has been exploring that possibility, also looking at stretching the policy to affect middle school extracurricular programs and high school students who drive to school.

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The notion of expanding random drug screening beyond high school athletics is picking up steam in Hall County schools.

A systemwide committee has been exploring that possibility as it relates to students in middle and high school athletics and other extracurricular programs, as well as students who drive their cars to school.

School officials issued a statement Tuesday summarizing the committee's work, which includes a survey of staff members at several schools over the potential policy expansion.

"The vast majority ... supported the possible expansion of the program," the report stated.

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A Drug Education Program at the Dougherty County Jail Draws Raves From County Commissioners.

ALBANY -- Noting the "overwhelming success" of the Dougherty County Jail's Controlled Substance Education Program in a report to the Dougherty County Commission Monday morning, Jail Director Doug McGinley provided some impressive numbers to back up his claim.

Calling attention to a 17 percent recidivism rate among graduates of the program during its five years of existence -- as compared to the typical 80 percent or above -- and $725,817 in "cost avoidance" as compared to $228,400 in actual costs, McGinley assured commissioners the six-week program delivers plenty of bang for the buck.

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Members of a Chatham County grand jury who spent three months hearing presentations from police and prosecutors were frightened at the extent of the crime they saw close up, they said in a report issued last week.

"As weeks passed, it was mind-boggling to hear about young men, mostly African-American, involved with gangs, guns and high-speed auto chases," foreman William P. Franklin Jr. wrote in the report's cover letter.

"Where there are drugs, there are usually well-armed, mean-spirited miscreants who have little or no regard for our lives, let alone their own.

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Responding to residents' calls for action, about 60 police officers and two specially trained dogs swept through two known drug areas in northwest Atlanta on Saturday in hopes of capturing drug dealers, fugitives and gang members.

With media along for the ride, officers made eight public arrests just before sundown in what APD spokeswoman Judy Pal called "an obvious showing that the police are here to support the community."

"The reason we're doing this is the community wanted us to come out here because they are tired of the thugs and criminality," Pal said.

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U.S. Rep. Paul Broun offered Democrats a peace pipe and sent Republican leaders' hopes that he'd toe the party line up in smoke this week by voting to ease federal restrictions on medical marijuana laws.

The Republican congressman from Athens was sworn in Wednesday and cast his first vote in the House of Representatives late that night in support of an amendment to stop the U.S. Justice Department from prosecuting people who distribute medical marijuana in states where it is legal.

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Concluding a two-year undercover sting operation in northwest Georgia that drew criticism from civil rights groups, the U.S. Attorney's office in Atlanta said it has convicted two men on charges of distributing products used in the production of methamphetamine, and won guilty pleas from 32 other defendants.

"Operation Meth Merchant" -- as federal prosecutors dubbed it -- targeted convenience stores where clerks sold drugs containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine and other products they knew would be used to make meth, said U.S. Attorney David Nahmias.

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White County Group's Effort Pays Off

CLEVELAND -- When Sharon Lee and her mother decided to go public with their struggles of having a methamphetamine-addicted family member, the response in White County was immediate.

What started with an article in the local newspaper about her brother's six-year addiction to meth became a mandate for change.

"Over the next two to three weeks we got so many calls from people who had the same story as ours," said Lee, a local chamber of commerce member and co-owner of America's Best Storage in Cleveland. "We said, 'We can't just let this go. If that many people have the same problem, we need to do something.'"

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Gwinnett teenagers are trying sex, drugs and alcohol at a younger age, according to a new health survey.

The Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services asked more than 32,000 middle school and high school students to complete questionnaires asking about a wide range of topics, including their drug use and sexual behavior. The results indicate more middle school students are having sex, using drugs and binge drinking -- drinking five or more drinks on a single occasion -- the coalition reported.

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This week saw two very different First Amendment cases, one which received national coverage and the other with a tremendous regional impact.

The first case in the national news this week concerned a high school student in Alaska who held up a sign at a televised school event saying, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." The school deemed it as promoting drug use and suspended him, with his case making it all the way to the Supreme Court before a judge finally ruled that, yes, schools have the right to uphold disciplinary rules regarding limits on free speech. Had the court ruled otherwise, any drug-related or offensive or obscene material on T-shirts, posters, etc., would have been fair game for students.

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To mark the UN International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, government officials rounded up and destroyed thousands of used needles found on the streets of Tbilisi on June 26.

The Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs and the Young Doctors Association held the anti-drug action with the slogan "Health is in fashion".

Participants of the action collected over 5000 used syringes lying in hospital yards, entranceways to buildings, squares and streets of Tbilisi. Deputy Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs Davit Meskhishvili destroyed the needles with an asphalt roller on June 26.

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Four-Month Undercover Investigation Focused On Newtown Area

Longtime residents of the Newtown neighborhood in southeast Gainesville watched from their front porches in curiosity Thursday morning as a steady stream of sheriff's and police cars ferried handcuffed suspects to a gravel parking lot across from Antioch Baptist Church.

"We need this," said one Mitchell Street resident of more than 25 years, who like others spoke on the condition his name not be printed for fear of retribution. He said the drug peddling -- mostly crack cocaine and marijuana sales -- occurs at all hours, with dealers glancing down furtively to stash spots in bushes along the sidewalk or hiding their crack rocks in drink bottles.

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In light of the developments in the Kathryn Johnston case, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington picked a bad time to advocate for trusting the police and to blame their reliance on informants on a "no snitch" campaign.

Using paid snitches instead of trained police appears to have more to do with circumventing constitutional rights than a "no snitch" movement. Cases chronicled on November.org -- the Web site of The November Coalition, a nonprofit organization working to end drug war injustice -- reveal that informants are an overused tool in the drug war, which, like the war on terror, is a major catastrophe. It has cultivated a cadre of dishonest snitches and overzealous cops resulting in a mounting distrust of police.

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