The increasing toll exacted in Georgia by meth is the subject of a town hall-style meeting today hosted by Gov. Sonny Perdue at Reinhardt College in Cherokee County, says the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will speak to an invitation-only audience of law enforcement officials, prosecutors, drug rehabilitation professionals, and elected officials. Cherokee County was selected as site of the meeting because of the success of its multi-agency anti-drug task force, which last year seized $300,000 worth of methamphetamine.
The northwest Georgia mountains have been a hotbed of meth activity. Drug dealers in Atlanta distribute large amounts of high-grade methamphetamine, called “ice,” to New York, Boston, Chicago, and southern states, said Steve Whipple of the Drug Enforcement Administration. “We’re a hub for the whole eastern seaboard,” Whipple said. The number of smaller local meth labs declined in Georgia after the state required cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine to be sold from behind the counter.
Link: http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/cherokee/stories/0320metmeth.html