SUMMIT TO FOCUS ON COMBATING METHAMPHETAMINE PROBLEM IN GEORGIA

ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia's growing methamphetamine problem will be the focus
of a summit that is expected to draw more than 200 federal, state and local
officials.

The two-day meeting will begin Aug. 17 in Atlanta and is funded by the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration.

"The goal is to come up with a plan of action that communities can adopt to
identify the problem and what they can do to combat it," said Donna Dixon,
vice president of
the Georgia Council on Substance Abuse, which is hosting the summit along
with Gov. Sonny Perdue.

The meeting will be the first of its kind in Georgia, which has been
working to curb the number of people making the illegal stimulant in
explosive, makeshift laboratories.

"It is an overwhelming problem for law enforcement at all levels," said
Sherri Strange, the DEA's special agent in charge of the Atlanta Field
Division, which covers Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.

From 1999 through 2003, the number of meth labs raided annually by police
in Georgia went from 29 to 439, according to Georgia Bureau of
Investigation figures.

"The meth lab problem is mainly in rural Georgia at this time," said GBI
Director Vernon Keenan. "But we believe that it is going to continue to
spread and that it will, in the near future, reach into the metropolitan
areas."

Other states, such as California, Washington, Tennessee and Hawaii, have
held meth summits in recent years. Such meetings often lead to legislation
meant to stop the manufacture of methamphetamine by regulating the sale of
key ingredients, Strange said.

Last May, Perdue signed a law making it a felony to possess more than 300
of the over-the-counter cold pills needed to make methamphetamine. It also
makes it a felony to possess anhydrous ammonia, a common fertilizer, with
the intent of making meth.

And last month, Perdue signed a law allowing prosecutors to hold parents
and caregivers criminally accountable for reckless child endangerment. The
law also creates a separate felony for making meth in the presence of a child.