AGGRESSIVE DRUG CRACKDOWN DRAWS CRITICISM FROM LOCALS

BONIFAY - A crackdown on methamphetamine in Holmes County has not received
unanimous acclaim there or in some nearby communities, authorities say.

Sheriff Dennis Lee and his deputies have arrested more than 700 people and
raided 76 clandestine laboratories since February 2003. Holmes ranked
second only to nearby Bay County in taking down labs across Florida last
year, according to federal Drug Enforcement Agency records.

"We've had a lot of people criticize us for putting so much effort into the
drug problem," Lee said. "Some people believe if people want to use dope in
their own house that they should be left alone to do it regardless of what
the consequences are for the rest of the neighborhood."

He attributes that attitude at least partly to history.

"During the Depression this community tolerated moonshine because money was
hard to come by," Lee said. He said that many "didn't feel like marijuana
was any worse than moonshine."

Lee this year is facing re-election opposition in the Democratic primary
from Tim Brown, a former deputy. The winner will face Republican Jim
Whitaker. Neither challenger opposes the meth crackdown, but Brown
criticized Lee's conviction rate as too low.

Chief Deputy Eddie Ingram replied that about 90 percent of meth defendants
are convicted but the overall rate is lower because of plea bargaining by
prosecutors that drops or reduces many charges.

Lee praised antimeth efforts in neighboring Jackson and Walton counties and
nearby Bay County but he wouldn't discuss details or offer an opinion on
other nearby communities.

"I've got to live with them," Lee said.

Ingram wasn't so reticent, saying he has heard some sheriffs and other
officials say they don't have a meth problem or that cracking down will
cost too much.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agent supervisor Ed Hudson
said he didn't think sheriffs are ignoring meth but that smaller counties
have to be selective because of limited resources.

DEA records show Washington County, which borders Holmes on the south and
is slightly larger, had five meth labs cleaned last year at federal
expense. That compares with 23 in Holmes.

"We don't have the volume of problem as they have had in Holmes County,"
Washington County Sheriff Fred Peel said. "They have made an issue of it
there and we just haven't."

Peel disagreed with an assertion by Ingram that the heat being put on meth
in Holmes is driving some labs into nearby counties.

Sheriff Johnny Daniel of Jackson County, just east of Holmes, said he also
has less meth activity than Holmes but cannot explain why. DEA records show
four labs cleaned in Jackson last year.

With more than twice the population of Holmes, Jackson has greater
resources, including a four-member narcotics team, Daniel said.

He agreed that some meth cooks are moving across county lines, including a
couple from Holmes who drove their motor home to Jackson where they were
arrested.

Geneva County, Ala., bordering Holmes on the north, has battled meth for
more than a decade. Deputies there raided nearly 100 labs last year and
about 40 so far this year, said Tony Helms, commander of the sheriff's drug
task force.

Helms said he thinks some of Holmes' meth activity may have moved there
from Geneva instead of the other way around.