Pubdate: Sun, 15 Apr 2007
Source: East Valley Tribune (AZ)
Copyright: 2007 East Valley Tribune.
Contact:  http://www.eastvalleytribune.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2708
Author: Amanda Keim, Tribune
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

STATE LAUNCHES ANTI-METH DRIVE

Scottsdale middle school students will get a sneak peek  at a
statewide anti-methamphetamine campaign Tuesday  designed to scare
them straight.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard and Maricopa  County
Supervisors Chairman Don Stapley, R-District 2  of Mesa, Gilbert and
Scottsdale, will be at Cocopah  Middle School to unveil the Arizona
Meth Project  advertisements the day before the campaign's official
launch on Wednesday. They'll also talk to about 30  students about the
drug.

Arizona's campaign is patterned after the Montana Meth  Project
launched in September 2005. Arizona will use  the same television ads
aired in Montana, which feature  dramatizations of meth's effects,
said Linda Mushkatel,  special projects manager for Maricopa County.

The campaign features several ads including a young  girl in a
hospital emergency room and other spots  showing users with open sores
on their mouths or teeth.

"They're gritty. They're not pleasant to watch," said  Andrea Esquer,
spokeswoman for Goddard's office. "There  was some forethought. How do
you get these kids'  attention to get them to understand what using
meth  even once will do?"

Arizona print ads, billboards and a Web site also will  be similar to
the Montana products, seen at  www.montanameth.org, Mushkatel said.

There also will be a series of radio commercials --  some in English,
some in Spanish -- that will feature  real Arizona youths sharing
their experiences with  meth.

The Montana campaign first caught Goddard's attention  in February
2006, when that state's attorney general  spoke at an Arizona meth
conference, Esquer said. This  campaign is impressive because it
included a baseline  survey to determine what kids knew about meth and
  whether the ads were effective over time, Esquer said.

Cocopah was picked to unveil the campaign because it's  a typical
school, representative that meth use happens  everywhere, Mushkatel
said.

"When we talk about drug use, there's some thought that  it only
happens in certain parts of the city,"  Mushkatel said.

She pointed to the Arizona Criminal Justice  Commission's 2006 Arizona
Youth Survey to show that  theory isn't true. According to those
numbers, 4.3  percent of eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders have tried
meth.

There were 1,412 meth production-related raids across  the state
between 2000 and 2005, figures from the  attorney general's office
show.
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MAP posted-by: Derek