For whatever reason, I’m having no luck finding this using Google. I’m trying to verify a drug death that a source has told me of. I have the person’ name and date of death, and that she lived in or around Atlanta, Georgia. If she is dead, then this should be trivially verifiable with the coroner. However, I can’t figure out what coroner’s office I should be calling. (And if any reading here is from the Atlanta area, I would appreciate the names of the adjacent counties.)
Fulton, DeKalb and a few others. Fulton is the main county, Atlanta just spread out into the others.
The City of Atlanta lies wholly within the borders of Fulton County.
However, Atlanta is a big sprawl, and many people who say they live in Atlanta actually live “Metro Atlanta” which is composed of an inner and outer ring of far-flung suburbs.
The Metro Atlanta area immediately surrounding Atlanta is:
Fulton, Dekalb, Cobb, Gwinnett, Fayette, Coweta, Clayton,
These counties are a bit farther out but sometimes are called “Metro Atlanta”: Douglas, Forsyth, Hall, Henry, Paulding, Rockdale.
Yeah, Thats pretty much it. I lived in dekalb when not at college for 21 of my 22 years of my life. We lived in Dekalb… but our address was Atlanta. So, I have to second what has already been said.
Oh, and if you’re looking for drug deaths, I’d put odds on Dekalb or Fulton before checking the others. The seedier locations fall within those two counties.
I was born in Atlanta. In the 60s/70s/80s, the five counties of the metro Atlanta area were Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett, and Clayton. As I understand it today, the SMSA (the metro region defined by the US Census) now has 10 counties, and up to 18 claim to be within its suburban orbit.
I grew up in DeKalb, near Emory University, and anything more Beaver-Cleaver suburban would have been disgustingly annoying. As it was, I count myself as being extremely lucky. It was a great place to grow up.
This wasn’t that sort of drug death. The reported death involved a 20 year old woman who overdosed taking OTC Coricidin Cough and Cold tablets as a source of dextromethorphan (DXM). (For those unfamiliar with this drug, check out my websites dextromethorphan.ws and coricidin.org). The e-mail was from the deceased woman’s aunt, who wanted me to explain exactly what was on toxicology report from the coroners office, and what this drug is. She got my e-mail from my website.
For those unaware, DXM is fairly popular with young adults and adolescents in the US. Probably the most appealing thing about it is they sell it in drug and grocery stores everywhere, and at most retailers they don’t bat an eye if a 13 year old walks in and buys a couple boxes of Coricidin. Typically the users are middle class and white. Abuse is common enough both 20/20 and Dateline (2 US newsmagazine shows) have done segments on it. Unfortumately deaths are becoming more common recently. 
I still haven’t added a news report written by me to my website about a DXM death I confirmed and have the coroner’s report on. My websites get something like 700 or so daily unique visitors, and the main intent of the sites is to warn people about the dangers.
And, according to a correspondent, a peer reviewed medical journal recently cited a page on one of my sites. I’ve gotta work on getting a copy of:
Pediatr Emerg Care. 2004 Dec;20(12):858-63.
Dextromethorphan abuse.
There are restrictions in at least some stores on buying medicines containing DXM here in North Carolina, probably based on the abuse. You can buy them OTC with no problem – but you cannot just pick up a supply from the shelf; you have to ask the clerk at the checkout for them.
It could be they are doing this because of shoplifting. Does this apply to all DXM products, or just some? Coricidin is in a small box, and it is very easy to shoplift. At the local CVS you have to ask the pharmacist for Coricidin, but Robitussin Maximum Strength cough syrup is on the shelves. The way to find out if they are restricting sales to children is get a 13 year old to ask to buy a couple boxes of Coricidin, and see if they’ll sell it.
Wrong. A small section of eastern Atlanta lies in Dekalb county. This causes great confusion regarding services and taxes for some people.
Note that Georgia has an amazing 159 counties (down from 161 pre-1932) which explains why there are so many counties in the metro Atlanta area. And it helps spreads the graft around.