Stephens County Grand Jury Hands Down 53 Indictments, Most For Alleged Drug Crimes

The Stephens County Grand Jury handed down 53 criminal indictments when they met for their first session of the year earlier this month.

Some of the indictments went back for crimes allegedly committed in 2015 and 2016.

Of the 53 indictments, 34 involved arrests for alleged possession, trafficking, and/or manufacture of illegal substances, primarily methamphetamine.

Others were indictments for alleged possession or manufacture of marijuana or prescription drugs.

Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley said the illegal drug trade is epidemic in our area.

He said marijuana is the number one illegal substance abused in Stephens County followed by methamphetamine and prescription drugs.

The Sheriff said the local justice system and law enforcement agencies are frustrated by the enactment the Criminal Justice Reform Act in 2013.

The law was enacted to help the State Prison System save on the cost of housing an ever-increasing load of inmates by offering treatment and work programs to non-violent offenders instead of prison time.

But Sheriff Shirley says that essentially ties the hands of judges.

“Due to criminal justice reform, judges are not allowed to send drug dealers to prison anymore,” he said. “I see Superior Court Judges so frustated when they (drug dealers) go through all these treatment programs that are offered at the taxpayers’ expense. I was speaking to Judge Caudell recently and he said he sentenced a drug dealer to eight years in prison and the State Board of Pardons and Parole released the individual back on the streets in less than a year.”

The Sheriff said the Criminal Justice Reform Act has created a revolving door for many drug users and drug dealers and does little to curb the serious drug problem in this area.

“When you send drug dealers back on the streets into society, they’re going to continue doing this,” Shirley said. “You’ve got to protect society. It’s not a victimless crime. In fact, it’s a very violent crime. All these drug gangs that you’re seeing are occuring because of this Criminal Justice Reform Act. And that’s what I hope our new Governor, Governor Kemp will really take a look at. There’s some things in there that need to be tweaked and that’s one of them.”

The Sheriff also expressed concern over some state lawmakers’ plan to get the growing and selling of medical marijuana legalized in Georgia.

He says that will only make the drug problem in Georgia worse.

“This will destroy this State and the bad things that are happening in Colorado and these other states (where marijuana is legal), the overdoses they’re seeing in children, the impaired driving under the influence of marijuana/THC, the cost to law enforcement, the deaths, the healthcare costs, they don’t tell how high it goes up. They only tell you about the millions and millions of dollars that was brought into their state.”

Shirley said citizens need to call their State Senator and Representative and tell them to oppose any legislation that would legalize marijuana or marijuana production in Georga.