COUNTY'S DRUG PROBLEM GROWS DESPITE LOWER CRIME

The spike in meth making has escalated the war on drugs in Madison County,
while Jackson crime is down by 7.5 percent overall.

That's what Madison County Sheriff David Woolfork and Jackson Police Chief
Rick Staples told an audience at the First Friday Forum.

Speaking on "Crime in our Community," the two initially lightened the tone
by working the crowd as a comedy team would, cracking jokes at each other
and lightheartedly picking at members of the audience.

When things quietened down, Woolfork started by talking about the city and
county's biggest crime problem - drugs. He mentioned cocaine, crack cocaine
and marijuana, but methamphetamine production has grown into the greatest
problem, he said.

He told how about 100 pounds of marijuana was recently recovered from a
closet in a house in the rural part of the county. But in three years, meth
lab discoveries are what have increased by 400 percent in Madison County.
The Sheriff's Department recently received a $222,000 grant to assist in
meth investigations, Woolfork announced.

Recently in the Beech Bluff area, a person had an explosion that resulted
from cooking meth, Woolfork said. And one of the more common crimes related
to meth manufacturing is stealing anhydrous ammonia tanks from local
farmers, he said.

"If you were to talk to most of the inmates (in the county jail) you would
probably find that 80 to 85 percent of them are in there for something drug
related," Woolfork said.

Staples based his crime report around Mayor Charles Farmer's 14 1/2-years
in office. Farmer is running for another term in Tuesday's election.
Staples gave what resembled a campaign speech for Farmer, citing a 7.5
percent drop in crime, a 22 percent population increase and 27 percent
increase in land mass during Farmer's time in office.

"With that kind growth, one would expect crime to increase, but it hasn't,"
Staples said.

There are 500 fewer homes being burglarized compared to 14 years ago, he
said. Fewer people are being killed in traffic accidents, with only one
traffic-related death last year and an all-time low of DUI crashes, he
said. And there are fewer homicides.

"Jackson is a better and safer place than it was 14 years ago," Staples said.

Staples said he didn't feel that speeding was an issue until recently, "but
to some we are not doing a good enough job, so we strive to do better," he
said. "A lot of times the people that complain the most are the very ones
that are doing it."

About 11,000 traffic tickets were written last year - 5,000 of them being
speeding tickets, Staples said.

He said that less than 1 percent of Jackson's crime occurs downtown. To the
laughter of the crowd, he began listing most of the minor crime that has
occurred recently downtown with anecdotal stories about specific incidents.