Coweta

County Sheriff Mike Yeager is serious about making sure

the county's students are aware of the dangers of drug

and alcohol abuse.

Instead of

asking the county commission for money from the general

fund to expand drug abuse awareness, Yeager asked the

commissioners allow him to use a portion of the money

garnered in fines to help pay for the program.

The sheriff

pointed out a section of the Official Code of Georgia

that would allow him to tap the growing fine pool in the

county.

The county

can create a special county drug abuse treatment and

addiction fund from the fines that can be used only to

treat and prevent substance abuse.

"Instead

of asking the taxpayers to pay for it, the people who

break the law will be paying for it," he said.

Money from

fines ranging from traffic violations to drug charges

will be placed into a special fund to help continue

ongoing treatment programs and create new drug awareness

programs in the county's schools, he said.

The county

already has officers in each of the county's middle

schools and has a drug abuse program in place in the

elementary schools, but Yeager wants to expand the

programs to make sure the message of zero drug tolerance

gets delivered.

Yeager had

initially asked for a $20,000 yearly budget for the

programs, but said he would rather wait and ask for the

money as new problems were created.

The

commissioners unanimously approved Yeager's request and

encouraged him to keep battling in the war against drugs.