Governor Perdue Announces Funding for 15 New Meth Force Agents

Governor Perdue Announces Funding for 15 New Meth Force Agents

State to Double Agents on GBI Meth Force

CANTON, Ga. – Governor Sonny Perdue announced today that his upcoming budget recommendation will include funding to double the number of agents on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Meth Force. Governor Perdue made today’s announcement at the GBI Canton Regional Drug Enforcement Office in Cherokee County.

“Georgia is waging an effective battle against the scourge of methamphetamine with a strong local, state and federal coalition,” said Governor Sonny Perdue. “An additional 15 agents on the GBI Meth Force will double the state’s efforts to combat meth and related crimes like burglaries, assaults and even homicides.”

Doubling of the GBI Meth Force will bring the total number of agents investigating methamphetamine trafficking, production and distribution to 30. Governor Perdue created the GBI Meth Force earlier this year with an initial 15 agents. The 15 new agents will provide assistance to local law enforcement and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in the areas of highest need for methamphetamine investigative work. The additional agents will be funded with more than $1 million in the FY07 Amended or FY08 budget cycle.

The expanded GBI Meth Force will:

• Enable the state to respond to the growing problem of imported methamphetamine;
• Support local law enforcement agencies in undercover street-level investigations of methamphetamine sales;
• Establish an initiative in Metro-Atlanta with the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) to combat the meth importation and distribution networks in the Atlanta metro area; and
• Train and provide support to local law enforcement in clandestine methamphetamine lab response.

“By giving law enforcement tougher laws to address the dangerous problem of clandestine meth labs in Georgia, progress has been made in reducing the number of meth labs in our state,” said GBI Director Vernon Keenan. “However, Georgia is a major distribution point for meth smuggled from Mexico for the entire east coast of the United States. These additional agents will partner with federal law enforcement in metro Atlanta to combat this tremendous problem.”

In his 2007 budget proposal, Governor Perdue included $1 million for methamphetamine substance abuse treatment to treat approximately 200 adults with families affected by the drug.

In April 2005 Governor Perdue signed legislation to combat the manufacture and abuse of methamphetamine by requiring products with pseudoephredine as the sole active ingredient to be sold behind the counter of a retail or pharmacy store.

In April 2004, as a part of Governor Perdue’s Child Protection Legislation, he proposed and signed into law stiffer penalties for manufacturing or possessing methamphetamine or a chemical substance intended to be used in the manufacture of methamphetamine in the presence of a child. Later in 2004, Governor Perdue helped bring statewide attention to the rising problem of manufacturing and abusing methamphetamine with the “Methamphetamine and Georgia: Seeking Solutions Summit.” The summit resulted in 25 recommendations divided into five categories – public awareness, clandestine lab response, pre-cursor chemicals, drug endangered children, and statewide coordination, training, best practices and protocols.

In 2003 Governor Perdue proposed and signed into law legislation that strengthened criminal penalties for the manufacture, transfer and possession of methamphetamine and criminalized the transport of materials used in its illegal production.

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