MOMS WORK TO SNUFF OUT DANGEROUS DRUG

It has only been two months since Melinda Payne and Janie Fulghum, two
suburban mothers from Loganville, joined their close friend to search for
her 17-year-old daughter. Their search for the girl, who had been using
methamphetamine for more than a year, showed them a side of their community
that they had never seen before.

Motel rooms used as meth labs and houses filled with people using meth,
contrasted with the manicured lawns and neatly built single-family homes
that they saw in their daily lives.

It was a culture shock that made them aware of what was happening around
their kids, made them aware of what was happening just under their noses.
And it made them angry.

They were angry that neighborhood convenience stores sold meth pipes out in
the open, disguised as vases for tiny plastic flowers. They were angry
there were no affordable treatment programs for their friend's daughter
once they found her. And most of all, they were angry that Loganville
seemed to have a pervasive meth problem that officials had either given up
on or were flat out ignoring, said Fulghum. "Everybody knows we have a
problem," she said. "It just seems like there wasn't anyone willing to step
up and do something about it."

So in early May, these two moms decided to take things into their own
hands. They formed the Loganville-Walton County chapter of Moms Against
Methamphetamine in early May and have been drumming up support for the
group ever since.

"What we want to do is educate people in this and other communities about
what ... to look for, and to talk to their kids about meth on their level,"
Fulghum said.

Before forming the group, neither Fulghum or Payne had ever been to, much
less spoken up at, a city council meeting. Now they're regular speakers at
nearly every government meeting and civic club in Walton County.

Rookies or not, MAMa's charter members seem at-home sitting underneath the
weight of their large, leather-bound planners in MAMa's Loganville office,
a room that sometimes doubles as Fulghum's living room.

The planners became necessary after a recent flurry of local and
Atlanta-based news stories gained them invitations to speak everywhere from
regional panels on domestic violence to a meeting of the membership of the
Walton Electric Membership Corp.

One date that's in both women's planners is July 12, when they'll hold
their first public information meeting at 7 p.m. in Loganville High School.
It will be their first big stab at widespread public education on meth in
Loganville. They also hope it will garner enough attention that moms in
other counties will consider starting their own local chapters of MAMa.

But recruiting new members is only the start. The months following MAMa's
big July 12 meeting will be just as busy as the last two months have been
for the two women, said Fulghum. In the long-term, MAMa wants to start a
24-hour help line for people using meth and for those who want to help
them. The women want to provide free at-home drug tests for parents who
suspect their children are using meth, and they want to start a fund to
help pay for recovering meth addicts to go to rehabilitation centers. No
one should be turned away from rehab because he doesn't have the money,
said Payne.

People have said that they doubt that two moms can make a dent in the drug
problem. To them, Fulghum replies with a maxim that's been around as long
as moms - every little bit helps.

"You can only eat a hamburger one bite at a time," she added. "But sooner
or later that hamburger is gone."