CRAWFORD BATTLES INCREASING METH LAB TREND

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.

The Drug Enforcement Agency spent about $36,000 this summer - an
average of $3,000 per lab -dispatching a GBI investigator to Crawford
County to collect, remove and dispose of dangerous chemicals each time
a lab was found.

So far this year, meth activity in the county represents a 50 percent
increase from 2006, according to the sheriff's office.

"I'd say we have a problem," said Crawford County Sheriff Kerry
Dunaway. "Of course, methamphetamine use and manufacturing has been on
the rise for quite some time, but we've had to streamline some of our
practices."

In April, the Crawford County Sheriff's Office withdrew from the
Middle Georgia Drug Task Force, which then served Crawford, Peach,
Jones and Bibb counties, in order to concentrate its resources in
Crawford County.

The move, along with new equipment and additional personnel, enabled
deputies to be more proactive in fighting the drug-related offenses,
which make up most of the county's crime, Dunaway said.

Those offenses range from domestic crimes to check cashing schemes to
armed robberies, and "all relate back to drug use and manufacturing,
or attempts to secure the resources to purchase drugs," Dunaway said.

By appearances, the mom-and-pop meth labs are abundant in Crawford
County.

A sheriff's investigator said on any given day there are about 10
working labs Crawford County law enforcement can't snuff out because
of locations that are well camouflaged, such as in the county's dense
wooded areas.

The sheriff's office continues to investigate the Sept. 23 explosion
of an operational meth lab located inside a camper trailer off
Marshall Mill Road.

No charges have been filed against 37-year-old Shay Edison and
44-year-old Wayne Robertson, who were burned in the blast, which the
state fire marshal calls an apparent case of arson.

Last week, Edison was discharged from an Augusta burn center, where
Robertson remains.

James David Fox, 47, was arrested Sept. 27 after investigators said
they found him cooking meth in a shop-type building behind his
residence on Wildwood Road. Investigators waited for hours that day
before the bubbling burn pit had cooled down enough to be extracted.

Fox remains in custody at the Crawford County jail and will appear in
court on Oct. 26.

But DEA spokesman Special Agent Chuvalo Truesdell says clandestine
meth operations are generally on the decline nationwide.

"Our big problem is the Mexican drug trafficking organizations near
the Southwest border that operate super labs that can make 10 pounds
of meth in one cooking," Truesdell said. "So overall, we're seeing an
increase in consumption rather than production."

According to the DEA's Web site, 156 six clandestine meth labs were
treated by Georgia law enforcement in 2006, compared to 131 in 2005
and 261 in 2004.

"Overall, these labs have waned quite a bit, especially since the
Precursor Laws (of 2005), which restricted the purchase of ephedrine
and pseudoephedrine by making them behind-the-counter drugs,"
Truesdell said.

Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, ingredients in some sinus and cold
medications, are among the nearly 15 substances used to make
methamphetamine.

As part of the legislative effort to reduce meth activity, local
pharmacies have started to keep a log of people who purchase ephedrine
and pseudoephedrine, and how frequently.

By law, customers can purchase no more than 3 grams of either drug
within a 30-day period, according to Erin Peacock, a pharmacist at the
Kroger in Warner Robins.

The medications usually come in packages of about 1.2 grams, she
said.

"We track this in the company's computer database. If someone tries to
buy more than the allotted amount, we turn them away," Peacock said.

Wesley Gerald Sorrow, one of the suspects awaiting trial on charges of
manufacturing and possessing methamphetamine in Crawford County,
appeared in that database, according to officials.

Investigators say meth manufacturers duck pharmacy stipulations by
purchasing a monthly allotment from several pharmacies in an area. Or,
they work in teams to alternate the names collected at one location.

To combat that practice, some area pharmacies alert the Crawford
County Sheriff's Office about unusual purchasing trends at their stores.

Dunaway says closer ties with the community, which is increasingly
aware of the local meth problem, also help propel drug enforcement in
Crawford County.

"The damage that methamphetamine causes in the community, especially
for families, far outshadows any other drug," he said. "We value the
information we receive from the public."

The average meth manufacturer in Crawford County is a white male in
his mid-20s to early 30s, according to the sheriff's office. That
description is congruent with national DEA statistics.

"It does seem to be a phenomenon that is most prevalent in the white
community," Dunaway said. "But users range from teenagers on up to 40-
and 50-year-olds, and the norm can always change."

Dunaway says the locations where people use meth are as varied as the
places where users do other drugs.

"So we visit schools and target civic groups and work with other
public safety departments to educate citizens on what to look out
for," he said. "This is not just a Crawford County problem.
Methamphetamine might be manufactured here but it's certainly being
distributed all around."