Methamphetamine trade in North Georgia is widespread with
users who are also small-time sellers, said the commander of the Zell
Miller Mountain Parkway Drug Task Force.
But there are few professional labs and few major dealers in
North Georgia, according to an interview with Commander Chris Romine
last week.
At his Jasper office, Commander Romine said the typical meth
seller is a regular user who buys more of the drug than what is
required for their own use. The user then resells the surplus to fund
their own habit.
A common perception is that meth is readily made in home
labs. But Romine estimates between 90 to 95 percent of meth on the
street in Pickens County is manufactured at "super labs" in the metro
area and brought here.
Romine said law enforcement agents define a "super lab" as
any operation capable of producing 10 pounds or more of
methamphetamine at one time. Romine said he does not believe any
super labs operate in his North Georgia jurisdiction of Pickens,
Gilmer and Fannin counties.
In Pickens County, drug agents have busted three small labs
in the past year. These appeared to have been primarily for personal
use with only a little of the product left over for selling.
Romine said recipes for producing the drug are commonly
available and all ingredients can be purchased in regular stores.
But, he added, to churn out large quantities of the stuff takes a lot
of expertise and equipment and often the skills of someone trained as
a chemist.
"Big operations still require big labs," Romine said.
His task force makes around 20 arrests per month across its
three-county jurisdiction, Romine said. Typical arrests involve the
small-time sellers and users who characterize the North Georgia meth
industry.
Romine said most meth dealers deal in "eight-balls." These
are eighth-ounce quantities of meth (equivalent to four grams)
typically divided into four one gram bags. Users ingest the drug by a
number of means, including smoking, snorting or injecting, but
smoking the drug in a glass pipe is the most common.
"Dealers usually know their customers and what quantities
they will want," Romine said.
Anyone selling more than a pound of the drug in a week is
considered a major distributor. And there have been a few arrests in
Pickens County of people dealing that amount, Romine said.
Romine said he believes two new laws involving meth will give
drug agents an edge in combating growing use. Under new regulations,
the state requires anyone buying Sudafed or Ephedrine, common cold
medicines used in meth recipes, to show identification which is
recorded at the store. Some stores have already moved these
medications behind the counter. Others stores will probably soon
follow.
"From some of the people [arrested] that were willing to talk
about their cooking, getting all the ingredients was the most
difficult part of the operation without drawing attention to
yourself," Romine said.
Romine said he hopes to work with local stores to see how
they handle this information. Currently the law does not spell out
what a storekeeper should do with the information.
Chemicals in cold medicines form the bulk of raw ingredients
in meth. Making those ingredients harder to buy in large quantities
will slow makers down, at least for a while, Romine said. Prior to
the widespread use of cold medicines in meth, a commercial chemical
was used. When increased regulation made that ingredient hard to buy,
makers discovered the cold medications could be substituted.
Romine said that, realistically, even if new government
regulation slows the purchase of cold medicines by meth "cookers",
they will soon find a new substitute. In the meantime, law
enforcement agents gain some valuable time to try and reign in the
problem.
A second new law makes illegal the altering of cold
medicines, as by crushing them. Romine said this law will help agents
when they search a home and find crushed cold medicines but no
finished product.
Romine said, during his years in law enforcement, meth itself
has changed. Most common in powder form during the mid 1980s, meth
showed up as "ice," manufactured in cubes by the mid 1990s. Now,
most commonly manufactured in super labs, typical meth resembles rock
salt, Romine said. He added that very few home "cookers" take the
additional time and trouble to make meth in any form other than
powder.
The move away from powder into more solid forms of meth also
led to a deadly increase in the purity of the drug, Romine said.
"Earlier, it was mostly shipped in from western states," he
said. "One seller would sell to another and they would dilute it each
time to increase the amount they had, and by the time it reached this
area, it was only 50 to 60 percent pure. Now we are seeing some that
is 80 to 90 percent pure."
New drug purity has fostered increased addiction,
drug-induced mental illness and death by overdose in North Georgia.
Romine said meth is one of the most addictive and debilitating drugs
he has seen in his career in law enforcement. He said its highs are
really high and its lows, really low. And addiction can occur with
just a single use. Unlike other drugs, with meth almost no users are
occasional users.
"When people start, it's not a one time use," Romine said.
"People go from just trying it to can't get away from it. They end up
not caring about anything else - family, friends, jobs, households or
children."
Romine said his task force has arrested meth users in all age
groups and social groups from teens through people in their 40s.
Included is a small but highly troubling
problem of meth presence in the local high school, he said. "It's not
a big problem yet [at the high school]," he said. "But when kids are
together it can spread quickly."
For anyone concerned about a friend or relative, it should be
pretty obvious when someone is using meth. Romine said it is a drug
addiction that can't be hidden for long. Among the first signs of
meth use are drastic changes in sleep habits - staying awake for long
periods of time, followed by a sleep of several days.
The drug task force commander said, thus far, there hasn't
been any type of gang violence or organized criminal activity around
the drug trade here, but the potential is present. He said about 90
percent of dealers arrested had a firearm. So far, there have been no
shooting incidents.
While organized violence may not be seen, Romine said a rash
of other crimes are directly related to the drug, including thefts,
burglaries, cases of domestic abuse and child abuse.
"When they [users] are trying to support their habit, they
will steal whatever they can get rid of the quickest," Romine said.
Among meth's dangers, Romine listed mental illness created by
addiction and its related lack of sleep, including hallucinations and
paranoia exhibited among meth users.
"There may be someone on the drug, who hasn't slept in three
days, driving the car next to you," Romine said.
When asked how his drug task force combats the crime, Romine
said they take every tip seriously, and are looking to work up the
chain to apprehend larger distributors.
He said his office gets lots of tips, but can't go out and
search every home where they are told drugs are present, because of
constitutional protections involving search and seizure.
"We get a lot of tips," Romine said. "We may not act on them
right away, because we need to get certain types of corroborating
info."
All tips are filed and kept for use in investigations.
Romine said his team also works with other law enforcement agencies
plus fire and EMS crews to spot possible home labs or drug leads. He
added they have made arrests when deputies responded to domestic
violence calls or found stolen property, because the illegal
activities provided reasonable cause to search a residence.
Romine said it also helps to have several tips providing
information about the same residence or suspect.
Romine said the Zell Miller Mountain Parkway Drug Task Force
has added one new agent, who will be working in Pickens County.
Currently there are four agents on the task force. Romine said he
expects to add another agent January first. The task force also has a
new canine unit.
Romine said, in the war against meth, investigation and
arrest is one option. He plans to increase education and prevention
programs in the coming year as another option to fight the spread of
meth in North Georgia.
To report suspected drug activity, call the Zell Miller
Mountain Parkway Drug Task Force at 706-253-8920.