METH USE 'OVERWHELMING'

For the second time in as many years, a Whitfield County grand jury has
said more money and personnel are needed to fight drugs.

"It has been determined that the manufacture, distribution and consumption
of methamphetamine continues to overwhelm the resources of law
enforcement," the grand jury for the January 2003 term wrote in a public
notice published last month in The Daily Citizen. "The toll on our
resources not only relates to the drug crimes themselves, but to other
criminal activity associated with the money required to facilitate drug
activities."

The grand jury "strongly advocates an increase in resource allocation and
funding for direct law enforcement efforts relating specifically to drug
crimes.

"We note that not doing so will increase the cost to the community in the
long run for prosecution, imprisonment, support of resulting dependent
families and other community services."

The words echo those of a grand jury which in February 2002 wrote an open
letter to the citizens of the county stating there is an "urgent need, in
fact a critical need, to increase law enforcement efforts, specifically in
the area of drug enforcement."

"I'm not surprised," said Greg Deslattes, a member of last year's grand
jury of the findings by the most recent grand jury.

"There's one thing I can tell you about the local officials - after denying
things long enough it seems they'll acknowledge it and they think they're
done."

Local law enforcement officers have differing opinions, some saying that
additional resources will help while others say that is not the answer by
itself.

"It takes manpower and money to make (our) cases," said Capt. Rick Swiney
with the Whitfield County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Scott Chitwood budgeted
$40,000 this year for drug purchases, which is how detectives make their
cases, but the Board of Commissioners changed that to $10,000, officials
said. In 2001, the agency received $78,000 to use for drug purchases.

"We understand the methamphetamine problem in Whitfield County, and that
will probably need to be addressed at some point, but that depends on just
how much money is available," said Mike Babb, chairman of the board of
commissioners. "They've needed a new jail since 1994 and that's being
addressed. They've needed new jailers, and I think we added 30-some
employees to the jail."

This year detectives have to use seized money to supplement their $10,000,
Maj. John Gibson said. "That's the only way we're operating right now,"
Gibson said. The Dalton Police Department's budget for drug purchases
increased from $25,000 last year to $75,000 this year.

Both agencies have three detectives plus a supervisor to work on drug
cases. Neither agency received additional drug detectives this year. Drug
detectives at both agencies normally work from 1 p.m. until 10 p.m., though
they often stay later.

Due to budget constraints, sheriff's office detectives are told to take
time off when they've reached 40 hours, Gibson said. "We can only run the
unit based on the funding we have for it," he said.

"We're sympathetic that they have budget constraints," said Warren
Coppedge, foreman of this session's grand jury.

"It's not an easy problem." But, Coppedge said, "More personnel would
enable agencies to have drug detectives working around the clock, seven
days a week.

"Because the animal feeds at night, the officers have to work at night.
(Officers) don't need to be told they have to work for nothing or be told
they have to come back tomorrow and hope the drug dealers haven't sold all
their drugs and made all their methamphetamine." The grand jury said it was
"concerned at the number of domestic violence cases, many of which are
related to drug problems."

The grand jury specifically recommended:

* The allocation of additional funds to "facilitate" drug cases.

* An increase in the number of detectives authorized to work in drug
investigations.

* Creation of an online database among pharmacies, hospital emergency rooms
and doctors "with respect to listing information to ferret out prescription
abuse."

A community issue Still, solving the drug problem is not a money issue but
a community issue, Deslattes said, and several detectives agree. Although
more detectives and more money would result in more drug arrests, the
detectives say arrests alone are not the solution.

"It's not going to solve the problem," Sgt. Tom Phillips with the Dalton
Police Department's criminal investigations division said. "It's supply and
demand.

Unless their wants change, it's not going to be solved." "It's more than a
matter of money," Deslattes agreed. "It's finding better ways. They have to
get people to understand that it's everybody's problem by taking
distinctive action to show that is the case." That action could include a
multi-county task force or finding government money to fund the drug units,
Deslattes said.

"You sit there and tell yourself that if it's still out there I haven't
done everything I can do," he said. Last year's grand jury presented the
idea of a Government, Industry, Citizen Task Force to the county commission
because each aspect affects the others, Deslattes said.

"All you have to do is sit down and look at what the county has done with
that idea," he said. "Nothing. If there are serious drug issues in this
community there are serious drug issues in industry as well. Why don't we
start acting like we're all together?"

A community awareness program and neighborhood involvement also are ways to
attack the drug trade, Deslattes said.

"Let's go without softball fields," he said. "I read earlier this year that
we came across $1 million-plus in revenue to the county which they're going
to use to put more softball fields in.

"Wouldn't it be great if 10 percent of that went to fund some serious
undercover drug work in the county?" Ball fields, at $200,000, are just one
of the areas the commissioners decided to fund with the money, and some
citizens see them as a key in keeping youth away from drugs.

Other areas funded by the commission are $350,000 for a highway maintenance
barn, $275,000 for the county pension plan, $155,000 for road paving
materials, $220,000 for other Public Works Department projects, $93,901 for
the county's contingency fund and $15,000 to install traffic lights at the
intersection of Haig Mill Road and the North Bypass.

Commissioners said at the time the money was discovered that they didn't
want to use it on items such as personnel that would require additional
funding in later years.

"I'm sure there are going to be lots of places where people think we could
spend more money," Babb said then. "But we've got to be careful that we
don't spend it on things that have repeatable costs.

"You can hire a deputy, but then you've got to put him in a car, provide
him with a radio and other expenses. And his salary would be a recurring
expense. Anything that requires people is a repeating cost."

Treatment One way to address the heart of the drug problem is to give drug
users treatment, or else increasing the number of arrests won't have any
effect, officials said.

"You can't keep doing the same thing expecting different results, and
that's what we're doing," Dalton Police Chief James Chadwick said. "What
we've been doing, arresting people, hasn't been working, and it isn't now."

Without treatment, addicts start using drugs again once they've completed
their prison sentences, Chadwick said.

But treatment isn't the answer for everyone, officials said.

"I've seen people go through required treatment, and they still do drugs,"
a detective with the sheriff's office said. "You can't make someone rehab."

The Conasauga Drug Court, established just over one year ago, features a
two-year program consisting of group meetings with the Drug Court team -
law enforcement, probation and court officials - weekly court appearances
to see how the participants are doing and participation in programs such as
Narcotics Anonymous.

"We think (Drug Court) is one of the most effective (ways to address) the
drug problem," Coppedge said.

"This court, operated by Judge Jack Partain, has functioned well and has a
comparatively high success rate when compared to other drug abuse
'solutions,'" the grand jury public notice stated. "Funding remains a
problem. Every endeavor to keep this court process active should be made,
as a failure to do so is far more costly in dollars and in the human toll
on families and children."

Seventy-seven percent of those enrolled in Drug Court stay with the
program, compared to the 40-60 percent who stay with other counseling or
treatment programs, said George Shirilla, Drug Court coordinator.

"People are making a commitment to the program," Shirilla said. "This is
not saying, 'I'm going to get out of jail free and hang around this and not
do anything.' It has accountability and it encourages responsibility."

Drug users usually are required to participate in treatment programs as
part of their probation, but the outcome depends on the mind-set of the
user, officials said.

"There are people who have gone through that program who want help and it's
been successful," Phillips said. "There are people who have gone through it
because it's part of their probation or sentence and they don't care
anymore about getting help. They just want to stay out of jail."

Even if law enforcement resources are increased and treatment is added,
nothing will change unless society is changed, Chadwick said. "We're going
to have to raise up a generation of kids who don't use drugs, and that
hasn't happened yet," he said.