SURVEY WILL HELP GAUGE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES ABOUT METH

HILLSBORO -- How much do you know about methamphetamine?

In Jefferson County, which has led the state since 2003 in the
number of meth lab raids, the Methamphetamine Action Coalition is
planning to survey county residents next spring to gauge public
knowledge and attitudes about the drug. The aim is to help develop
education, prevention and treatment programs.

In 2005, a total of 2,252 meth labs were seized in Missouri; 256 of
those labs were in Jefferson County.

Lt. Tommy Wright of the Jefferson County sheriff's office said
county narcotics officers expected to exceed that number this year.
Part of the problem, he says, is a lack of understanding about the
drug and how dangerously addictive it can be.

"If it's not happening next door to you, if you don't have a family
member involved in it, you don't know what it is," Wright said.

The survey effort is being funded, in part, through grants from the
United Way, which last spring awarded five one-time grants totaling
$22,500 to Jefferson County Community Partnership, Jefferson County
Health Department, National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse,
Northwest Jefferson County Coalition for Methamphetamine Education,
and Supporters of Jefferson County Drug Court to address
methamphetamine abuse.

The health department took the lead in forming the Methamphetamine
Action Coalition to coordinate efforts of the various grant
recipients and conducted a preliminary community assessment survey
over the summer that polled a sampling of 263 county residents.

Of those surveyed, 91 percent to 97 percent strongly agreed that
methamphetamine was illegal and addictive, but only 33 percent to 38
percent agreed that there were places in the community where they
could learn more about drug abuse prevention or expressed a
knowledge that such resources existed.

"What we found out from our preliminary survey is that parents and
community members wanted to do something, they wanted to do more
about the problem and take some steps to address it, but they really
didn't know where to turn," said Kelly Guertzgen, health education
coordinator for the Jefferson County Health Department. "We know
that there are organizations out there such as fire departments, the
sheriff's office and our department that are doing things. We just
maybe need to do a little better job of advertising to get that
information out there."

Guertzgen says a follow-up survey is scheduled to begin in April and
will be conducted by phone, with potential participants selected at random.

"What we're looking for is to find out what people know and what
they need to know, so we know where to start with our efforts,"
Guertzgen said. "There really isn't a typical profile for the meth
user. It's not the homeless person sitting on the street corner.
It's not kids going off to a park doing this kind of stuff.
It's soccer moms. You have just as much likelihood finding a meth
house in a rural farm area as you do in a suburban million-dollar home."