METH TASK FORCE RELEASES RECOMMENDATIONS

GUNTERSVILLE - Fighting the crystal methamphetamine epidemic will require
education, cooperation and enforcement, according to recommendations
released Friday by the Marshall County Crystal Methamphetamine Task Force.

"It's not just a Marshall County problem or a Northeast Alabama problem,"
Marshall said.

"It's a nationwide problem. There is no panacea, no single answer to deal
with it. People have given countless hours of their time to this task
force. They have, I believe, put together a plan that's going to make a
difference."

The 28-member task force was formed in December 2001 when Angela Sparks
talked with newly appointed District Attorney Steve Marshall. Sparks,
director of the Marshall County Court Referral Program, which includes drug
court, suggested that Marshall focus on the county's methamphetamine problem.

Starting without any assumptions, the team's first mission was one of fact
finding. It learned that methamphetamine accounted for 33 percent of felony
drug arrests in 2000 and for 73 percent of drug cases in 2002. "In the
grand jury we just finished, 75 percent of the 251 total cases were related
to drug use and addiction," Marshall said.

The group found that more than 70 percent of the child abuse and neglect
cases reported to the county Department of Human Resources were directly
related to a parent or guardian being on drugs.

"During several months of the task force's work, Marshall County ranked
third in the state for the number of child abuse and neglect reports,"
Marshall said.

During the spring of 2002, the task force hosted eight town meetings across
the county to inform people about the problem. About 2,000 parents,
teachers and other people attended.

"People came up to us after those meetings and said, 'I need help for my
friend,' 'I need help for myself,' (and) 'Let me tell you about something
I've identified in the community,'" Marshall said.

The task force's 22 recommendations range from forming a non-profit
organization to seek grants and collect information on methamphetamine use
to developing procedures to notify social-service agencies about newborns
who test positive for methamphetamine.

The group has already implemented one of the recommendations, the Merchants
Against Meth program. Retailers are being encouraged to look out for people
who buy large amounts of the chemicals used to make the drug and report
their observations to police.

Marshall County District Attorney Steve Marshall said Merchants Against
Meth, which began in February, has led to some meth lab discoveries. "We
don't always know (which calls come from merchants) because they can call
in anonymously," he said.

Bill Stricklend, a district attorney's office investigator, said he
believes the program is working because it's impossible to find iodine
crystals at local stores. "I had a friend in the horse business looking for
iodine crystals, which are used to treat thrush in horses," Stricklend
said. "He couldn't find it here because merchants have removed it from
their shelves."

Another business recommendation is providing countywide human resources
training about drug-testing policies and awareness. That training has been
scheduled for next month, Marshall said.

May 30 is the deadline to distribute a list of substance-abuse treatment
providers to various county agencies.

Public awareness should be increased by creating a Web site with
drug-related information and resources by Dec. 31, continuing community
education efforts, recommending the creation of a statewide commission to
direct strategies, recommending legislation that restricts the purchase of
the chemicals used to make the drug and requiring the reporting of the
purchase of excessive amounts of the drug, according to the report.

To support enforcement of existing laws, the task force will ask the local
legislative delegation to re-establish minimum mandatory sentences and
enhancement. Formerly, five years could be added to the sentence of people
convicted of distribution of a controlled substance within three miles of a
public school or public housing community. The Supreme Court ruled 16
months ago that such enhancements could be suspended.

If the pharmaceutical industry could be persuaded to develop and add a
substance to pseudoephedrine that would make it ineffective in
methamphetamine production, that would made it harder to manufacture the
drug locally, according to the report.

Locally produced methamphetamine is not the greatest source of the drug,
however. The task force decided that being able to quickly remove from
Marshall County illegal immigrants who traffic in meth would cut down on
major supplies coming from areas such as California and Texas, Marshall said.