Pubdate: Fri, 07 Dec 2007 Source: Missoulian (MT) Copyright: 2007 Missoulian Contact: http://www.missoulian.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/720 Author: Jennifer McKee, Missoulian State Bureau Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States) Note: Letters from newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority INDIAN TEEN METH USE DROPS DRAMATICALLY HELENA - Montana's American Indian high school students report using the drug methamphetamine at more than twice the rate reported by all Montana students. However, meth use has fallen dramatically since 1999, when more than one-fourth of Indian high school students on Montana's reservations reported using meth at least once. Almost 11 percent of Indian high school students on the state's seven reservations reported using meth at least once in their lives in the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a routine questionnaire distributed to high school students around the state every two years. For Indian students in urban areas, the rate was 10.5 percent. That compares to just 4.6 percent of all Montana high school students who reported using meth, a highly addictive drug. Statewide results of the survey were announced in September, but information specific to Indian students only recently became available. Despite the higher rate of meth use on reservations, Superintendent of Public Instruction Linda McCulloch said she was pleased by the figures because they show a significant decline since 1999. Back then, figures show, nearly 27 percent of reservation high school students said they had used meth at least once. More than 24 percent of Indian students off reservations also reported using the drug. Today, those figures have fallen by more than half, said McCulloch, whose office conducts and tallies the survey. She attributed the decrease to many factors, including widespread public advertising campaigns. "I think it's very positive," she said. "I think it says a lot about our students paying attention to information they get in school, information they get with the Montana Meth Project campaign and on our reservations." Methamphetamine is a powerful and addictive stimulant that can be made from certain cold medicines and other common chemicals. Although the drug can be made locally, newer laws limiting access to cold medicines have begun to shift production of the drug out of state. In September of 2005, software entrepreneur Tom Siebel, who owns a ranch in Montana, started the Montana Meth Project. The effort features gritty newspaper, television, radio and billboard advertisements showcasing the negative effects of meth use, such as rotting teeth and compulsive skin picking. McCulloch and several Indian leaders and educators said Friday they thought the higher rates of meth use among Indians had several causes, principally poverty. "Montana's reservation communities have a higher poverty rate, extreme unemployment," said state Sen. Carol Juneau, D-Browning and a former educator in the Browning Public Schools. "If you look at any group in those concentrated areas of poverty, you are going to have more social problems." Poor families often can't afford drug addiction treatment, even if such services were available, she said. Rep. Norma Bixby, D-Lame Deer, said another explanation is the higher high school dropout rate on many reservations. Those dropouts don't just disappear, she said. They still have friends in high school, and if they become addicted to meth they may start sharing the drug with students still attending class. Bixby also said the lack of resources on reservations makes it harder for kids recovering from addiction to stay clean. A tribal education director for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Bixby said schools might have a greater role to play by staying open after school hours for family recreation, giving kids a safe and constructive place to stay. "A lot of this happens after school," she said. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin