MIGRATING METH - DEMAND HIGH HERE

Not only has the number of methamphetamine labs found so far this year in
Whitfield County already surpassed the number found in 2002, but the
numbers of meth-related arrests have increased dramatically as well,
officials said.

"The demand for the drug is high," a detective with the Whitfield County
Sheriff's Office's narcotics unit said.

County drug detectives have found 19 meth labs so far this year. In 2002
they found 18.

And 123 people have been arrested by county detectives so far this year on
meth-related charges, up from 87 people in 2002.

The amount of meth seized this year has almost doubled, with 33 pounds
worth about $2.2 million confiscated so far in 2003, compared to 17 pounds
worth about $1 million in 2002, detectives said. Statistics from the Dalton
Police Department's drug unit were not immediately available.

The cost of cleaning up the labs, which depends on their size, was not
immediately available, said Ben Scott with the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration's Chattanooga office, which covers North Georgia. "The
larger the lab, the more expensive it is," Scott said. "It would vary so
much depending on what was involved with cleanup." Meth labs usually are
found in houses, outbuildings and garages, detectives said.

On Wednesday, seven people were arrested at a meth lab at 127 Fannie St.
off South Dixie Highway. Five were charged with trafficking by
manufacturing methamphetamine, among other drug-related charges. In July,
eight people were arrested when county detectives discovered four meth labs
in four days.

Last year, two labs caught on fire, both injuring people. In August 2002, a
Rocky Face man received burns to his hands when a meth lab caused a fire at
his mobile home on LaFayette Highway. In September 2002, a 20-year-old
Rocky Face woman suffered burns covering about 75 percent of her body after
a meth lab her mother was operating exploded, officials said.

In October of this year, 18 distributors in a "major" methamphetamine
network in Dalton were arrested following a yearlong investigation by the
sheriff's office and police department along with the Drug Enforcement
Administration, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FBI, Georgia
Bureau of Investigation, Rome/Floyd Metro Drug Task Force and Georgia
Probation and Parole Department. Charges pursued in federal courts in Rome
and Chattanooga included distributing or possession with intent to
distribute between 50 grams and 500 grams of methamphetamine, and
conspiring in North Georgia and East Tennessee to distribute 500 grams or
more of "ice" - a purer form of meth - 500 grams or more of cocaine and 50
kilograms of marijuana. Whitfield County grand juries in the past two years
have recommended more resources for drug enforcement. Two drug detectives
requested by the sheriff's office for the 2004 budget are expected to be
approved in December, officials said.

The sheriff's office and police department both have four detectives in
their drug units. The police department also has four officers on its
Situational Response Unit, which works street level drugs. "We've got eight
people to their six, and they've got a larger geographical area than we
do," Dalton Police Chief James Chadwick said. "We can always use more
personnel, but right now that's what we have." On May 15, the charge for
operating a meth lab in the state of Georgia was changed from possession
with intent to sale to trafficking by manufacturing methamphetamine. That
change increased the penalty from five to 15 years in prison to 10 to 30
years in prison plus a $100,000 fine. The changes came about due to
Georgia's "meth lab crisis," said Lee Miles, assistant district attorney.

"We're having so many of them," Miles said. "People are getting more
educated and the governor's office understood meth labs are a great danger
due to the chemicals and the (threat) of fire and explosions." The new law
may stop some people from making their own meth, Miles said. "That's the
best we can hope for," he said. "They're aware of it. They read the
newspaper and watch TV."