CAMPAIGN AIMS TO STEM METH USE

Broadcast Effort Will Begin With Public Service Advertisements

The state of California and an anti-drug group this week are kicking
off the state's first broadcast campaign to prevent methamphetamine
use and to encourage users to seek treatment, officials said.

People seek treatment for meth use more than for any other drug
problem in the state, a health official said.

The campaign will open with public service advertisements on
television and radio in the state's five biggest media markets and
then expand to other markets.

By summer, the effort will broaden into a $10 million campaign that
will include paid TV advertisements and community outreach programs
to increase awareness of the risks of producing and using the illegal drug.

"Methamphetamine is the No. 1 drug in California in our treatment
admissions data," said Kathryn Jett, director of the state Department
of Alcohol and Drug Programs.

"It sounds like it would be helpful," said Riverside County sheriff's
investigator Jerry Franchville, who had not seen details of the campaign.

In 2005, 77,000 individuals were treated for using the drug in
California, representing 40 percent of the nation's total.

"Treatment admissions for methamphetamine continue to climb as we
speak today," Jett added.

Methamphetamine is an addictive stimulant that can be used orally,
injected, snorted or smoked.

It can lead to extreme weight loss and dental deterioration, and it
can cause behavioral and mental problems such as sleeplessness,
violent behavior and severe depression.

It is primarily a regional epidemic in the western United States and
has been combated largely through local, state and federal
enforcement, Jett said, with special task forces in areas such as the
Central Valley, where meth labs have been concentrated.

Last year, she said, the governor and state Legislature approved $10
million to widen the counterattack to include a public education
campaign intended to prevent the drug's use and to steer users into
treatment programs.

The program is targeting:

Women of childbearing age. Methamphetamine is the drug most abused by
pregnant women: 57 percent of such abusers who are treated have used
methamphetamine, followed by 12 percent for marijuana and 11 percent
for heroin.

Gay men. They are 10 to 20 times more likely than the general public
to use methamphetamine and four times as likely to become HIV positive.

Teens ages 12 to 17.

The black-and-white public-service advertisements were produced in
English and Spanish at no charge by media companies for The
Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the state's nonprofit partner in
the campaign.

The ads use such scenes as a meth lab, a burned-out forest and a
physically scarred abuser to deliver messages of the personal,
environmental and economic dangers of abuse and to promote treatment.

"Treatment works for meth addiction," Jett said.

Backers hope the campaign will prompt communities to focus on the
local impact of methamphetamine and how to address it.

"We are trying to get communities to discuss the problem," Jett said.