A Madness Called Meth: Chapter Twelve B "LIFE OR METH?" Iowa Funnels Money Into Student Programs Dale Woolery slides a CD-ROM into his computer and waits several seconds for an animated boy with a coy smile to appear on a board game. The boy's name is Terry and after a brief introduction he tells us to roll the game's dice. Terry, along with a handful of other characters - including "Ann Atomy" who talks about meth's effects on the body - guide students through lessons on methamphetamine abuse. After each lesson, players answer true/false or multiple choice questions. Correct answers earn points, but unlike a traditional game with winners and losers, this game is designed to save lives. To help get the meth-free message across to youth, Iowa officials are spearheading the creation of an interactive CD-ROM program called "Life or Meth?" The $450,000 project, funded by the state and federal Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area funds, will be introduced to fifth- and sixth-graders throughout areas covered by the Midwest HIDTA, which includes Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. "This is not the silver bullet to stop this monster," says Woolery, project coordinator. "It is a tool. We want to give our young people a choice." This summer, students in about a dozen Iowa classrooms tested the program. National Guard Lt. Colonel Kathryn Fulkerson, who is working on the project from the HIDTA office in Kansas City, hopes it can make a difference: "If we can educate children about the dangers of meth and show them what it can do to their bodies and minds, they won't want to use it." "Meth has become a particular crisis for us," says Bruce Upchurch, a former DEA agent who now serves as Iowa's drug policy coordinator. Nearly 60 percent of the drug cases tried at the federal courthouse in Des Moines are now meth-related. "Until we can change people's attitudes about using drugs and try to decrease demand, we'll be fighting this forever," Upchurch says. "Changing our focus to prevention and treatment while maintaining enforcement is the only way. We have to get the message across to kids." Last year, Upchurch helped coordinate a meth task force that included representatives from law enforcement, education, public health and social services. The result was a 3-year plan to combat methamphetamine and other drugs in Iowa. Most recommendations focus on education and treatment, including drug-abuse counseling for jail inmates, treatment instead of jail for small-time offenders and the expansion of a drug-court program. Treatment, Upchurch says, is more cost-effective, not only in dollars but also in lives. Iowa is pouring more than three times the amount of money into treatment and prevention programs than into enforcement this year: Coupled with federal funding and other sources, nearly $45 million will be spent on treatment, $20 million on prevention and $20 million for law enforcement and courts. But Iowans are not ignoring the punitive end. In 1999, the governor signed a law, believed to be the toughest in the country, which gives 99-year prison terms to adults convicted of selling meth to minors. The state's drug control strategy also proposes hiring six additional state drug agents and increasing funding to investigate organized drug crime. More funding also is proposed for specialized training in methamphetamine for local authorities. "We're only catching up to the idea that we've got to eliminate demand," Upchurch says. "Until we do that, the best law enforcement can do is hold the line." Chapter 13, http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1506/a03.html
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