Pubdate: Mon, 09 Aug 2010
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2010 Star Advertiser
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Author: Dan Nakaso

SCARED STRAIGHT

The Hawaii Meth Project educates isle students about the horrors of 
using "ice" through real-life anecdotes

The 11th-graders in Kaleo Akim's first-period class sat with their 
jaws agape yesterday as they stared at photos of how crystal 
methamphetamine can ravage the teeth, gums and mouths of teenagers like them.

"That gets their attention," Jennifer Phakoom, program manager for 
the Hawaii Meth Project, said before her presentation to 19 students 
at Kaimuki High School. "Kids are very concerned with their physical 
appearance, and scabs, sores and 'meth mouth' definitely make an 
impression with them."

Two months after launching a new series of television commercials and 
ads, the Hawaii Meth Project is taking its message of "Not Even Once" 
to a new generation of island school kids, in groups large and small, 
beginning yesterday with Akim's "Advancement Via Individual 
Determination" -- or AVID -- students.

They're hardly the overachievers of Kaimuki High School. The students 
in Akim's program score in the middle to low percentiles academically 
and would be the first in their families to go to college -- if they 
make the right choices, Akim said.

Phakoom does not want to preach to the converted. Through slides, 
commercials, real-life testimonials and an occasional impromptu pop 
quiz, Phakoom works to arm Hawaii kids with accurate information so 
they will know the path they are headed down if they try "ice" even once.

"It can change you completely," Phakoom told Akim's students. "But if 
you guys know what the facts are, you're less likely to engage in 
risky behavior. You guys are very, very powerful. You have more 
influence than you think."

In response to a question from one of the students, Phakoom said she 
did not realize that her old boyfriend was a meth addict until after 
she moved from San Francisco to Hawaii and began working with the 
Hawaii Meth Project.

The message of how pervasive and damaging meth can be is even more 
important during a time of high island unemployment and signs that 
meth use is on the rise.

One in 80 people taking a job-related drug screening tested positive 
for amphetamines in the second quarter of the year, a 70 percent 
increase from a year earlier, said Diagnostic Laboratory Services, 
Hawaii's largest drug-testing firm.

Honolulu police arrests for meth-related offenses for the first five 
months of the year are on pace to exceed last year's 289 meth-related arrests.

Phakoom told the students yesterday what crystal meth is made of -- 
including hydrochloric acid, nail polish remover and sulfuric acid -- 
and described how it reacts in the body to produce an initial 
euphoria that becomes addictive in 85 to 95 percent of the people who try it.

"But when you smoke ice," Phakoom said, "you're inhaling things like 
Drano and battery acid."

She talked about Hawaii teenagers, both boys and girls, who get swept 
up into prostitution to finance their meth addictions, and about meth 
babies born underweight and with undersize heads.

It was an unflinching look at lives ruined by crystal meth, including 
an audio interview with a 16-year-old Wailuku boy who tried ice at 
the age of 12 and later tried to hang himself in his bedroom.

As Akim's class sat silently, the boy said, "That one hit really 
changes your life."

Phakoom encouraged the Kaimuki High students to realize they are role 
models to their friends and younger brothers and sisters -- and that 
other people's good decisions depend on them.

After class, 16-year-old Travis Namba said, "We can be a positive influence."

Kyla Anderson, 15, said the message about crystal meth was clear: "It 
can ruin your life," she said. "And you can never turn back."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart