STATE METH LAW GOES INTO EFFECT

Floyd Can Still Enforce Its Stricter Ordinance Through End Of Year

Retailers in Floyd County are continuing to ask cold-medicine customers to
show identification and sign a log, despite a less restrictive state law
that went into effect on Friday.

The law -- aimed at halting the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine --
supersedes all local ordinances, but those on the books before Jan. 1 can
be enforced through the end of the year.

The Floyd County Commission approved its ordinance in December 2004.

David Reeps, commander of the Rome-Floyd County Metro Task Force, said the
number of illegal meth labs in the county dropped to one this year,
compared with 11 during the same six-month period last year.

"I can't say the ordinance is the total reason, but I do think it helped,"
Reeps said. "Our commission and (county) manager gave us something to work
with, and the state came in and took it away from us."

Floyd County Police Chief Bill Shiflett said the lack of a record-keeping
requirement makes the state law less effective than the local version.

"We've received a lot of names of people who visit these stores quite
often, so it's been an intelligence-gathering operation for us," Shiflett
said. "We haven't made any cases yet, but we're creating a database to keep
track of activity."

The Rome City Commission's ordinance mirrored the county's but was not
adopted until March, so it expired Friday. Rome police Chief Hubert Smith
said the city ordinance's provisions contained deterrents not present in
the state law.

"If you're going to buy something to make something illegal, you don't want
to give out information about yourself," the city police chief said.

Better than nothing

But not all jurisdictions had local ordinances governing pseudoephedrine
sales, and the new state law is welcome to officials in those areas.

LaFayette Police Chief Dino Richardson chairs the Lookout Mountain Drug
Task Force that covers Walker, Catoosa, Chattooga and Dade counties.

"We were a big advocate in getting the law passed," Richardson said. "I
would have liked it to be a little tougher, but it's a start."

LaFayette has another meth-fighting tool not affected by the state law, he
said. The city, which owns the local utilities, shuts off service to
residences housing meth labs until a certified cleanup is completed.

"We went from an average of one a week to one every other month or so,"
Richardson said.

State Rep. Barbara Massey Reece, D-Menlo, said the House study committee
she sat on recommended a law requiring identification and a signature but
compromised to ensure passage.

"You have to realize the problem is not as predominant in other sections of
the state as it is here," she said.

In the Polk County district of state Rep. Bill Cummings, D-Rockmart, there
were initial concerns restrictions would inconvenience legitimate shoppers.
But Cummings said he's had no complaints from an electorate that realizes
the drug is spreading like wildfire.

Richardson said the fears are justified. Addiction can come from a single
use, and manufacturing directions are readily available on the Internet.

"It's so easy to make, and it's more habit-forming than cocaine," he said.

Reece said an important provision in the state law requires retailers to
buy pseudoephedrine only from licensed wholesalers, and the wholesalers
must keep records.

"Law enforcement will have the right to check those invoices to see where
unusually large amounts are being sold," she said.

Interstate forces play a role

State Sen. Preston Smith, R-Rome, initially opposed the preemption language
in the bill that lets the state version trump local ordinances. However, he
said testimony during Georgia General Assembly hearings convinced him it
was appropriate in this case.

"Different communities were using different standards and the (national)
retailers, and business owners couldn't keep track of which stores could
carry what," he said. "They were saying they wouldn't ship to Georgia
unless there was a uniform standard."

The law likely will be strengthened in the future, Smith said, after the
impact of the current measure is gauged.

Reeps is pessimistic about the impact, saying Alabama and Tennessee
recently enacted tougher laws than Georgia's, and North Carolina is in the
process of drafting one as well.

"We'll have them all coming down here before long," he said about the
illegal labs.

Larry Wilson, sheriff of Cherokee County, Ala., indicated Reeps could be
correct in his assessment. Wilson said he is expecting a lot of help from a
law -- effective in August -- that will allow only pharmacists to sell
pseudoephedrine and require buyers to sign a log.

As Alabama moves toward restrictions slightly tougher than those in Floyd
County, it is rejecting old provisions similar to Georgia's new law.

"The only thing we had before is that they were supposed to keep
(pseudoephedrine) behind a counter," Wilson said. "It didn't help much
because we didn't know who was getting it."

State Rep. Paul Smith, D-Rome, said some merchants have complained the
Georgia law goes too far, but it is unlikely the current restrictions will
do more than slow the growth of illegal labs.

"The pseudoephedrine is just one of the problems," Rep. Smith said, naming
several industrial cleaning products that are seeing an increase in bulk
sales as ingredients. "The kids are killing themselves, but it's hard to
outmaneuver folks who are willing to break the law."