METH INMATES COST COUNTY $8,000 A DAY

This drug-of-choice for an increasing number of people makes headlines
every week when labs are found, arrests made and big checks arrive from
Montgomery and Washington, D.C. Yet the human toll can go unnoticed.

Cannon, chairman of the Marshall County Commission, gave members of the
Albertville Rotary Club some numbers they could sink their teeth into Tuesday.

"It costs the taxpayers $8,000 a day to keep meth violators in the Marshall
County Correctional Facility," he said. "We have 220 people in jail and 150
are there because of meth. It costs us $42 a day to keep a prisoner in jail."

While this is a lot for most people to swallow, the costs of letting meth
offenders remain free on the streets to make and distribute the drug are
even higher.

In the same speech in which Cannon praised the county tax assessment as the
best in the state, he pointed out that Marshall County is Alabama's No. 1
when it comes to methamphetamine.

"It's something I can't get a handle on. I get really, really frustrated,"
Cannon said. "It breaks my heart when I do my monthly inspection of the
jail because the bulk of the men and women in there are under 23 years old.
That is a problem I've found out I can't fix, and I pray to God every day.
We are in an epidemic."

The county dealt with 740 cases involving meth last year, he said. Law
enforcers say the overwhelming majority of crimes are related to drug
addictions.

A few years ago, Cannon said, about 12 percent of the children enrolled in
the Child Development Center were classified as "special needs," which can
include addicted parents. Today, that figure is as much as 60 percent.

"That gives us all the addicts' kids while there's little room left for the
children of single moms trying to make ends meet," Cannon said.

Although the impact of drug use upon marriages is less clear, Cannon said
the number of domestic violence cases reported in the county rose 500
percent between 1998 and 2004.

"These are beaten women. A lot of them, if we had not gotten grant money,
would be dead right now," Cannon said. "When you hear their stories of the
ordeals they went through, it turns you to stone."

Juvenile Probation is another county service facing a huge struggle because
of drug abuse. Cannon said about half of the 350 cases handled by the
office relate to drugs. He noted some success in young people cleaning up
their act after spending time at boot camp for drug violations.

"Another consequence we're seeing is truancy," he said. "The parents are
whacked out and don't care whether their kids go to school."

Cannon said Marshall County Drug Enforcement Unit Director Rob Savage is
"totally dedicated and has a team of professionals with specialized
training and equipment."

With the grave threat posed by increasingly savvy illegal drugmakers, the
police must be equipped with new defenses.

Cannon and Commissioner Tim Bollinger want to use $4,979.75 of their
combined road and bridge allotment to invest in bulletproof vests capable
of withstanding rounds fired from an AK-47 rifle.

"The vests cost three times as much as replacements for the ones we have,
which are five years old," Cannon said, adding the investment is needed
because three Birmingham officers were shot to death in June with a
semi-automatic rifle.

If an agent's life can be saved, then Cannon knows he has control over at
least one thing having to do with meth in Marshall County.