IDAHO MAY USE GRAPHIC CAMPAIGN TO FIGHT METH

Public Safety: Well-Known Montana-Based Program Features Hard-Hitting
Spots In Television And Print

IDAHO FALLS -- Gov. Butch Otter plans to meet with the billionaire
founder of the Montana Meth Project about launching an in-your-face
advertising campaign depicting the perils of methamphetamine in
Idaho. Tom Siebel, a part-time Montana resident who founded a
software company he later sold to Oracle Corp. for $5.8 billion,
created the Montana Meth Project two years ago after meeting with the
state's attorney general, Mike McGrath.

Since 2005, advertisements on Montana billboards, newspapers and
radio and television stations aim to dissuade children between the
ages of 12 and 17 from trying methamphetamine.

On the radio, children share methamphetamine-related horror stories.
Montana television stations repeatedly show a boy sucking desperately
on a small glass pipe. Outside of Great Falls -- a city roughly the
size of Meridian -- a large billboard features a young man with a
horribly pockmarked face.

The caption reads, "Actually, doing meth won't make it easier to hook up."

And in newspapers across the state, an ad showing a dirty bathroom
stall is published. "No one thinks they'll lose their virginity here.
Meth will change that. Billionaire Tom Siebel provided $5 million to
kick-start the Montana Meth Project and another $5 million late last
year to continue the campaign. Idaho Gov. Butch Otter plans to
meet with Siebel today about bringing the campaign to Idaho, but he
intends to pick Siebel's brain, not his pocket.

Debbie Field, Otter's drug czar, said the governor already has been
seeking out people willing to participate in a similar project in
Idaho. She said she has a stack of cards in her office with the names
of companies and individuals willing to help pay for it.

"He's bringing them to the table and saying, 'We need them in the
fight,'" Field told the Post Register of Idaho Falls. A Boise
television station has already pledged free advertising time in
March, and Field said she plans to have the ad campaign in full swing
soon after. She hopes to have a statewide survey completed by this
spring to better understand the scope of the drug problem.

She also said she envisions Idaho using taxpayer dollars to help pay
the bills once the program proves its worth.

In Montana, Gov. Brian Schweitzer has proposed spending state money
to help the campaign there, and U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., also
plans to seek federal money. Montana's project is little more
than a year old, but data released last week by its attorney
general's office shows that it is having an impact.

The study showed that 93 percent of Montana's students say meth use
comes at "great risk"; workplace drug testing showed a 73 percent
decrease in the number of people testing positive for meth in 2006;
and meth-related crime decreased by 53 percent from 2005 to 2006.