THE FIGHT CONTINUES

A Marshall County group dedicated to the fight against crystal
methamphetamine is expected to release Friday a list of recommendations to
help strengthen the fight.

The Methamphetamine Task Force, formed in December 2001, has been
collecting data related to the drug problem in the county and established a
report called "A Community Fights Back Against Crystal Methamphetamine."

The report offers recommendations for the community, government and law
enforcement to join together to fight the growing epidemic.

"There's a reason why Albertville is called Crystal City and Sand Mountain
is known as Meth Mountain," said Marshall County District Attorney Steven
Marshall.

Marshall spoke about the issue during a membership meeting of the
Albertville Chamber of Commerce Thursday.

Marshall worked to organize the task force soon after he took office. He
brought together 26 people from various parts of the community, including
law enforcement, the medical field, human resources, business and education.

"We started with a clean slate. The task force was charged with two things:
investigating the issue and then developing plans and recommendations,"
Marshall said.

Marshall said in 2000, Marshall County had 378 felony drug cases, 127 of
which involved crystal meth. Three labs were also busted during that year.

In 2002, the number grew to 526 felony drug cases with 374 of those
involving meth. About 35 labs were seized.

Marshall said Marshall County Drug Enforcement Unit Director Rob Savage,
who accompanied Marshall to Thursday's luncheon, recorded so far this year
over 200 felony drug cases with over 37 labs seized.

"If we can make an impact on the crystal meth problem, we can make the
community safer," Marshall said.

He said one thing the task force was quick to realize was it would take
cooperation from the entire community to battle this problem. An example of
this is the Merchants Against Meth program in which area merchants monitor
the sale of items used to manufacture the drug, such as iodine, lye,
matches, acetone, ephedrine or pseudophedrine. If they notice large
quantities of these items being bought by a certain individual, they are
encouraged to get the individual's name and report him or her to the
authorities.

"In some cases, when merchants began aware of how people were buying this
stuff for purposes for which they were not intended, they took them off the
shelves, making it harder for the users and dealers to get them. The ones
who are buying it for legitimate purposes will know to ask for it,"
Marshall said.