CONFERENCE TACKLES LOCAL METH PROBLEM

A free, two-day conference on methamphetamines in the community aimed at
members of the local law enforcement, medical and social services community
will be held Wednesday and Thursday at the Heritage Inn.

Officials from all levels of government, including state Attorney General
Mike McGrath, U.S. Attorney Bill Mercer, Great Falls Mayor Randy Gray and
Cascade County Sheriff John Strandell, will speak on a wide variety of
topics. More than 100 participants are expected.

The conference begins with a continental breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday,
and wraps up at 4 p.m. Thursday.

Topics include children and meth, how meth affects the brain, treatment vs.
incarceration, keeping families together, how Denver got tough on meth,
tracking the spread of meth across Montana and the region, and Montana's
legislative agenda, local ordinances and agency initiatives targeting meth.

For an agenda or to register, call Holly Beall at 444-5628.

While in town, McGrath also will speak about the meth epidemic to community
leaders and the general public at a 7:30 a.m. breakfast Thursday, also at
the Heritage Inn, 1700 Fox Farm Road.

The Meth Free MT Conference is an outgrowth of a year-old $2 million
federal grant from the Community Oriented Policing Services Program's
Methamphetamine Initiative.

In addition to funding such conferences across the state, the COPS money,
administered by the Montana Attorney General's office, also is used to pay
for law officers' overtime and equipment, long-term treatment for addicts,
community education efforts, including a Web site, and other means and
methods to fight the spread of meth in Montana.

Some of the money also is being used to support the creation of a youth
mentoring partnership between the Montana Sheriff's and Peace Officers
Association and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Montana.

The goal of the partnership is to provide at-risk children with positive
role models by encouraging officers to donate some of their free time to
the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.

To help

For more information on methamphetamines in Montana, how to recognize their
effects and battle their spread, visit www.methfreemt.org.
(http://www.methfreemt.org)

For more information on Big Brothers Big Sisters, where volunteers are
always needed, call 453-5521.