ANTI-METH PROJECT AIMS TO SCARE YOUNG PEOPLE

FAIRBANKS -- Officials and others around Alaska are launching an
intensive fight against the illegal use of methamphetamine.

The effort involves schools, stores, TV stations and a statewide
advisory council with members from Fairbanks, Anchorage, Juneau, the
Kenai Peninsula and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

The project will include television commercials aiming to scare young
people away from the addictive drug, anti-methamphetamine signs in
stores and methamphetamine education in schools, state officials
announced at a news conference Thursday at the Fairbanks Police Department.

More than half of the 1,570 grams of methamphetamine confiscated by
authorities in Alaska to date this year were seized in Fairbanks,
said Lt. Dan Welborn of Fairbanks police.

"We want to scare the hell out of these young people before they try
it even once," said Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, a proponent of the
effort, which is dubbed Meth Watch.

The endeavor is using $100,000 from the state to buy the rights to
anti-meth commercials being aired in Montana. The funds also will pay
to hire a program coordinator in Fairbanks and expenses for the
statewide advisory panel, whose members are still being determined.