MOM'S ANTI-DRUG GROUP LAUDED BUT MAY BE ENDING

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.

"We put posters up all over Loganville," Fulghum said. The girl
returned home two weeks later looking like a stranger. "In just two
weeks she lost 20 pounds and had that hallow look ... It was startling."

The ordeal inspired Fulghum to organize the Loganville and Walton
County branch of the Mothers Against Methamphetamine (MAMa) in 2005.
Since then, the group has educated thousands of people about the
dangers of meth through seminars, radio shows and a hotline that rings
in Fulghum's house.

However, Fulghum said MAMa may be retreating from Loganville. This
comes just after the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy lauded the efforts of parents like Fulghum who help fight the
war on drugs by taking the time to learn from their kids.

MAMa not welcome by all

Fulghum said the nonprofit activist group, which reaches out to
parents and their teens who experiment with drugs, has not been
well-received by some members of the Walton County and Gwinnett sides
of Loganville.

"In the beginning I was told, 'You are giving Loganville a bad name. I
can't believe you started this organization,' " said Fulghum, who
started the Loganville branch with the mother of the once-missing teen
and another women.

The home-school mom and her daughter Brittany, 15, have been keeping
the organization afloat for years. They do the speaking engagements
and answer calls on the hotline. Fulghum dips into the family savings
account to cover expenses. The nonprofit hasn't raised enough money to
pay for its operating expenses or dues to the national MAMa
organization, founded in 2002.

Fulghum, 46, and her daughter are scheduled to relocate to South
Carolina in the coming weeks. The "Main MAMa" --- a nickname she earned
in the community --- now worries that the organization she began will
likely move with her since no one from the area has stepped forward to
lead in her absence.

On Thursday, Fulghum gave what may have been the organization's last
anti-meth speech. She spoke to a group of parents and teens gathered
in the basement of a home in Conyers. She was invited to speak by
Linda King, who had heard the meth message a week before at Newborn
United Methodist Church in Newtown County.

"I had no idea that meth was so rampant," King said. "If we don't talk
to our kids ... they are going to get the wrong information about the
drug from the wrong people."

Parents matter

Organizations like MAMa can make a difference, some experts
say.

Meth use among young people is down 50 percent since 2001, according
to Scott Burns, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy. "Ecstasy use is down, cocaine use is down, marijuana use is
down," Burns said. "Young people are getting the message. Parents
matter. We don't want them to let up."

Burns' office recently launched a campaign, Parent Chronicles,
encouraging more parents to get involved. "We are seeing a new
generation gap between parents and their teens," he said. "Kids are a
lot more sophisticated than we think. You have to understand their
world."

That's why Fulghum is so concerned about the future of MAMa in the
Loganville area. She is spending her final days in metro Atlanta
lobbying state legislators and answering the MAMa hotline. And if no
one takes over, Fulghum says she will continue to take calls in South
Carolina.

"This drug is everywhere," Fulghum said. "We cannot change that, if we
don't acknowledge it."

HARD FACTS

Eighty percent of parents believe that alcohol and marijuana are
usually not available at parties their teens attend. In reality, 50
percent of teen partygoers attend parties where alcohol, drugs or both
are available.