A Madness Called Meth: Chapter Twelve B

"LIFE OR METH?"

Iowa Funnels Money Into Student Programs

Dale Woolery slides a CD-ROM into his computer and waits several seconds
for an animated boy with a coy smile to appear on a board game. The boy's
name is Terry and after a brief introduction he tells us to roll the game's
dice.

Terry, along with a handful of other characters - including "Ann Atomy" who
talks about meth's effects on the body - guide students through lessons on
methamphetamine abuse.

After each lesson, players answer true/false or multiple choice questions.
Correct answers earn points, but unlike a traditional game with winners and
losers, this game is designed to save lives. To help get the meth-free
message across to youth, Iowa officials are spearheading the creation of an
interactive CD-ROM program called "Life or Meth?"

The $450,000 project, funded by the state and federal Midwest High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area funds, will be introduced to fifth- and
sixth-graders throughout areas covered by the Midwest HIDTA, which includes
Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

"This is not the silver bullet to stop this monster," says Woolery, project
coordinator. "It is a tool. We want to give our young people a choice."

This summer, students in about a dozen Iowa classrooms tested the program.
National Guard Lt. Colonel Kathryn Fulkerson, who is working on the project
from the HIDTA office in Kansas City, hopes it can make a difference: "If
we can educate children about the dangers of meth and show them what it can
do to their bodies and minds, they won't want to use it."

"Meth has become a particular crisis for us," says Bruce Upchurch, a former
DEA agent who now serves as Iowa's drug policy coordinator. Nearly 60
percent of the drug cases tried at the federal courthouse in Des Moines are
now meth-related.

"Until we can change people's attitudes about using drugs and try to
decrease demand, we'll be fighting this forever," Upchurch says. "Changing
our focus to prevention and treatment while maintaining enforcement is the
only way. We have to get the message across to kids."

Last year, Upchurch helped coordinate a meth task force that included
representatives from law enforcement, education, public health and social
services. The result was a 3-year plan to combat methamphetamine and other
drugs in Iowa. Most recommendations focus on education and treatment,
including drug-abuse counseling for jail inmates, treatment instead of jail
for small-time offenders and the expansion of a drug-court program.

Treatment, Upchurch says, is more cost-effective, not only in dollars but
also in lives. Iowa is pouring more than three times the amount of money
into treatment and prevention programs than into enforcement this year:
Coupled with federal funding and other sources, nearly $45 million will be
spent on treatment, $20 million on prevention and $20 million for law
enforcement and courts.

But Iowans are not ignoring the punitive end. In 1999, the governor signed
a law, believed to be the toughest in the country, which gives 99-year
prison terms to adults convicted of selling meth to minors.

The state's drug control strategy also proposes hiring six additional state
drug agents and increasing funding to investigate organized drug crime.
More funding also is proposed for specialized training in methamphetamine
for local authorities. "We're only catching up to the idea that we've got
to eliminate demand," Upchurch says. "Until we do that, the best law
enforcement can do is hold the line."

Chapter 13, http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1506/a03.html