Alex Bartlett
Prof. Burt
11-1-2017
4th Essay first draft
Crawford county is a dear community to me. It is where I have lived the last nineteen
years of my intellectual life. There are many great things about the community of Crawford
County, but over the years the glamour seems to fade through news articles of drug abuse on the
rise. Now that I am older, I have seen the effects of the drugs firsthand, through some of the
dearest people to my heart. The D.A.R.E. program used to be the county’s way of combatting the
rising drug “virus” from spreading throughout the county by informing young children of the
dangers of drugs. In recent years though, the D.A.R.E. program has faded away and drug related
crimes are at an all-time high. Now my small community, is in need of a new way to combat this
battle with illegal substances.
Crawford County Sheriff Lewis Walker, “Drugs are the most increased crime in any in
any county in the state of Georgia.” (Mock) I have personally seen the effects of the drug abuse
through even my family members. I noticed the effects of drugs and it can take a toll on a family
when my uncle, my own flesh and blood, was arrested along with 17 others in the biggest meth
bust in Georgia in 2012. He wasn’t just ruining his own family, but also ruining many other
families through selling and distributing of narcotics. This issue really hits home to me because
of the way it has affected my childhood, and I would put no one through those type of
circumstances. That is why I think Crawford County should find a new way to help decrease the
casualties, physically and emotionally, of all of its citizens.
Crawford County is a very simple place for drug trafficking. In the small county alone
there are four major highways; highway 80, highway 42, highway 128, highway 341. Sheriff
Walker, “These people provide or sell to people in different counties and they’ll come over,
make their drop, get paid, then go.” (Mock) In rural counties, it is much simpler for trafficking
such as this to go unnoticed and completely under the radar. Quiet towns with quiet people make
is easy for distributors, sellers, and makers to not get caught by the law. The county, itself, is
only inhabited by twelve thousand individuals, yet it is one of the largest distributors for
methamphetamines.
Brad Tisdale, the jailer of the Crawford County Police Department, says, “One-third of
the criminals who come in the prison for drug charges are of the ages of twenty-one and under.”
(Tisdale) As a young person, I find this extremely disappointing. Individuals in my age group
have so much more to look forward to in life, but often these people turn to drugs as a way to
escape the reality of life. An old friend of mine grew up in a family of drug abusers. He was a
bright kid, but was soon influenced by his family, a few of the many users in the area, and his
entire future crumbled to the ground in front of him. I hope in the future that people in Crawford
County will conquer this issue, so that others won’t face that fate.
My community, Crawford County, is notorious for the ample amount of
methamphetamine cases that have taken root and made it known as the “Meth Lab Headquarters”
of the state of Georgia. Many of these cases end a lot worse than just time in prison. In many
sad scenarios, the meth labs are being run poorly, and explode killing the makers and innocent
people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is a drive of many of the police
in my community because they have seen these tragic stories in real life where innocent children
are killed due to the explosion of a meth lab. It became such a constant battle in 2013 within one
month nine meth labs were taken down.
Meth is a battle for my community, but across our nation many other drugs are on the rise
spreading across our great nation. Illicit drugs are spreading like wildfire across the United
States. (NIDA) Most commonly known illicit drug is Marijuana, and even with the rise of
legalization from it we still see the illegal acts of growing, selling, and using becoming a bigger
issue. In 2002 eight-point three percent of the population twelve and older were estimated using
marijuana, but now in recent years we see it rise to a staggering nine-point four percent of the
population using it. (NIDA) That is over 24.6 million people. The rise may be triggered by many
of the social movements in today’s culture to legalize it for health-related issues. There may be
good uses for it, but as of right now it is still illegal in the majority of states. This is still an issue
