SUPPORT BILL TO HELP CONTROL METH

Judge Howard Hawk spoke to the Albertville Rotary Club last week on a topic
that affects our entire community, especially our children --
methamphetamine.

He pointed out the number of dependency cases reported last year represented
a 500 percent increase over 1994, and 400 percent of that has occurred
within the past four years.

The cause is due to the parents' addiction to the deadly drug.

It is important that we do everything possible to curtail the growth of this
drug, or we could start seeing a major impact on our schools in the next few
years as these now dependent children follow in their parents' footsteps of
using meth.

The Alabama Legislature is considering a bill that would make it much harder
for an individual to purchase pseudoephredrine, one of the key ingredients
of meth. This bill would require customers to sign a register that they
purchased the item. This is similar to a bill recently passed in Oklahoma
that reduced the production of meth by close to 60 percent.

We support this bill and encourage the Marshall County Legislative
delegation to support it.