Times Editor

"Yes," said the woman sitting on her porch holding her grandchild, "I know drugs are being sold on the street right there ... I just mind my own business and stay out of other people's business."

She lives in the area just a block off Barnesville Street, inside the boundary of Avenues J and K - part of an area which Captain Dan Greathouse of the Narcotics Task Force says is home to an open air drug market.

Greathouse walked through the area Tuesday evening, accompanied by Task Force members and officers of the Upson County Sheriff's Department and Thomaston Police Department, who went door to door talking to residents. The neighborhood visit

was an effort to inform the law-abiding citizens what they could do to help stop the drug trafficking - and to send a message to those dealing drugs that the police presence is being intensified.

"We want to help put a stop to what is happening over here, and in other areas of the city and county," Greathouse said.

Working with Sheriff Don Peacock and Police Chief Frank Lang, the Narcotics Task Force is developing a strategy to deal with hot spots of drug activity in the community. As outlined by Greathouse, the strategy involves: