PASTOR REACHES OUT TO COMMUNITY

The problems created in Marshall County by crystal methamphetamine and
other drugs are being fought by a menagerie of law enforcement agencies,
but one local church has committed its energies to helping those agencies
combat this mighty foe.

Harvest Church, which is marking its 15th anniversary this year, has
pledged its help in tackling the drug problem facing this area. Senior
Pastor Jay Prosser said it's the church's goal to reach not only its
membership with the message of taking on this adversary but also those who
may have never stepped foot in this or any other church.

"The church is not supposed to minister just to the congregation. It's our
job to minister to the whole community," Prosser said.

Following the dictate of "find a need and then meet it," Prosser is leading
his flock on a journey to reach out to the community by working to
establish a Web site designed to promote drug awareness and prevention as
well as provide an anonymous referral source and informative
question-and-answer center.

The Web site, www.hopeforme.com, is not up and running yet, but Prosser
hopes to have it on-line soon.

In the meantime, he's enlisting help from others in the area to raise funds
to cover the site's operating costs as well as advertising it by printing
5,000 to 10,000 cards and brochures.

"I'm working to get this information together so I can present it to key
leaders in the community. When people invest in something, it becomes more
important to them," Prosser said.

All funds received will go directly to fighting the drug problem, Prosser
said. Additionally, the church has established the Hope Coalition, which is
a 501-C3, or non-profit, organization through which all funds for this
battle will go.

By logging onto hopeforme.com, parents, teachers, community leaders and
others will be able to access a multitude of information about illicit
drugs, such as crystal meth, cocaine, marijuana and heroin, as well as
others like alcohol and tobacco.

"Anybody who logs on can get stats on the United States and Marshall County
and what the effects of these drugs are and what they look like," Prosser said.

In addition, the site will provide information about treatment facilities
in North Alabama as well as area support groups such as Narcotics
Anonymous. Users can also link to other sites providing drug awareness
education and sign up to receive mailers.

Prosser also hopes to take his message into the local schools as well as
continue hosting the Taking it Back drug awareness and prevention rally,
which drew substantial crowds last year.

"The rally proved to be quite successful, and we hope to reach even more
people with the next one. The rallies are something we like to be able to
do because they can reach people from throughout the county," Prosser said.

Education and rehabilitation are key to curbing drug use, especially use of
methamphetamine, according to Dr. Mary Holley, an OB-GYN, who is also the
founder of a newly-formed group, Mothers Against Methamphetamine.

"I've seen people in a rehab center who I might of met six months earlier,
and I could definitely see a change in their personality. And they might
have put on 20 pounds, were able to make sense when they talked to me, and
often they'd experienced spiritual growth as well. (Meth addicts) can get
better. There is hope," she said.

Holley said it's important parents and educators understand "marijuana is
not a benign drug."

"A lot of times kids will get in with a drug crowd and start using
marijuana. After about six months, pot doesn't do it for them anymore, and
they move on to the harder drugs," Holley said.

In her experiences, Holley has discovered that 12 is the average age for
children to begin experimenting with drugs, and marijuana is usually the
first one they try.

"By 14, a lot of them are seriously into drugs. There are a lot of children
who are very experienced with doings drugs. People wouldn't dream how many
there are, and I've yet to meet a meth addict that didn't start with pot,"
she said.

The birth of Harvest Church's involvement in this issue came after Prosser,
who'd been keeping tabs on the situation, began to investigate and research
exactly how bad the drug problem is in Marshall County. What he discovered
shocked him.

Law enforcement statistics show more than 80 percent of the crimes
committed in Marshall County can be connected to illicit drugs, and use of
intravenous drugs in Marshall County has shown a 500 percent increase.

In 2001, 417 adults were arrested in the state for possession of
methamphetamine. Of those 417 arrests, Marshall County accounted for 153,
or 37 percent, of Alabama's total numbers.

Marshall County Drug Enforcement Unit Director Rob Savage, who ascended to
his current post last December, said this last year, he and the four agents
assigned to the DEU worked more than 500 felony cases - a number which not
only represents a 33 percent increase over 2001 but consists mostly of
cases involving meth.

"It was worse than I thought. The drug problem is so bad here. It became my
passion to do something about the problem," Prosser said.

Once he decided to take on this commission, Prosser began getting out and
talking with those in community about the problem. He found many people
didn't believe the problem affects them or their family.

However, Prosser worked to educate these people and make them aware that
even though they may not be doing drugs or have a family member who's doing
drugs, they are, nonetheless, affected by the problem.

"It affects all of us economically. Every shoplifter that steals from a
store to get products to make drugs or money to buy them forces the rest of
us to pay higher prices. Home burglaries, where people steal stuff to sell
for drugs, makes the insurance rates go up," Prosser said. Savage said meth
certainly affects all aspects of a community.

"No one part of our society is exempt from this. We've seen it in broken
homes and good homes, and encountered users who don't work as well as
people who have relatively stable employment," Savage said.

In addition, meth is a drug which doesn't just affect those who are using
it. He points outs a majority of the burglaries committed in the county can
be traced back to meth as well as other crimes such as shoplifting and
assault. Meth labs pose a serious risk to those living near them both
because of the toxic chemicals used to cook the product and because of the
volatility of the concoction which is highly explosive.

Savage also shared that because of the damage meth does to the bodies and
minds of those who use it, taxpayers will most likely be saddled with the
cost of providing long-term care for abusers.

Additionally, children born into families or raised in families where meth
is prevalent are particularly impacted by the drug. Savage said he is
continually seeing more and more cases where children are removed from
homes by the Department of Human Resources because of the presence of meth.

Addressing the meth problem, Savage said, has to be a collaborative effort
undertaken by many members of the community. It is something law
enforcement simply cannot do alone, he said.

"No one entity can solve this problem. (Marshall County District Attorney
Steve Marshall) and I have been saying for some time that it's going to
take a multi-faceted approach to take this on. Law enforcement cannot do
this by itself. Solving this problem starts in the local schools and
churches," Savage said.