'SUMMIT' TO FORGE METH PLAN

Officials Will Seek Answers To Dangers Of Illegal Labs

To combat Georgia's methamphetamine epidemic, more than 200 federal, state
and local officials will gather for a "meth summit" in Atlanta in August.

The meeting will be the first of its kind in Georgia, hard hit by the
escalating problem of people making the powerful, illegal stimulant at home
in explosive, makeshift labs.

Funded by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the summit will be
hosted by Gov. Sonny Perdue and the Georgia Council on Substance Abuse.

"The goal is to come up with a plan of action that communities can adopt to
identify the problem and what they can do to combat it," said Donna Dixon,
vice president of the council.

"It is an overwhelming problem for law enforcement at all levels," said
Sherri Strange, the DEA's special agent in charge of the Atlanta Field
Division, which covers Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee.

A preliminary list of those invited to the summit, Aug. 17-18 at the Omni
Hotel, includes police, fire and emergency officials; health, child
protection and environmental officials; lawmakers, educators, judges,
retailers and hotel operators.

In Georgia from 1999 through 2003, the number of meth labs raided annually
by police jumped from 29 to 439, according to Georgia Bureau of
Investigation figures.

"The meth lab problem is mainly in rural Georgia at this time," said GBI
Director Vernon Keenan. "But we believe that it is going to continue to
spread, and that it will in the near future reach into the metropolitan areas."

Keenan, who plans to attend the summit, is organizing a separate meeting in
August for law enforcement officials in metro Atlanta to discuss resources
required to clean up meth labs.

California, Washington, Hawaii, Tennessee, Oklahoma and other states have
held meth summits in recent years. The DEA's Strange said such summits
often result in legislation aimed at curbing the manufacture of the drug by
strictly regulating sales of key ingredients.

Last May, Perdue signed into law tougher punishments for people who make
and sell meth. The law makes it a felony to possess more than 300 of the
over-the-counter cold pills needed to make the drug. It also makes it a
felony to possess anhydrous ammonia, a common fertilizer, with the intent
of making meth.

In April, Perdue signed a law allowing prosecutors to hold parents and
caregivers criminally accountable for reckless child endangerment. The law
also creates a separate felony for making meth in the presence of a child.