STUDY: WYOMING TEEN METH USE DOUBLE NATIONAL AVERAGE

GREEN RIVER, Wyo. (AP) - Wyoming teen-agers are more than twice as
likely to have used methamphetamine in the past year than the national
average, according to a survey.

The two-year American Drug and Alcohol Survey released last fall and
other statistics emphasize the need for a methamphetamine treatment
center in Sweetwater County, Southwest Counseling Service specialist
Kim Swanson said.

The center is in the midst of a month-long campaign to show the
severity of Wyoming's methamphetamine problem.

Southwest Wyoming, in particular, is struggling to overcome a surge in
methamphetamine use that has hit the West hard as the cocaine trade
declines.

Gov. Jim Geringer's 1999 anti-methamphetamine initiative proposes to
help fund a methamphetamine treatment center using the former Union
Pacific clubhouse in Green River. Southwest Counseling Service would
manage the pilot program.

According to the drug and alcohol survey, one in 20 Wyoming high
school seniors had used methamphetamine during the previous month.
Compared to use over the previous year, that measure is five times the
national average.

State Department of Criminal Investigation figures show that
methamphetamine now accounts for nearly half of all drug-related
arrests in Wyoming. Of 169 drug arrests in southwest Wyoming in 1999,
68 involved methamphetamine.

The agency also reports that it seized five alleged methamphetamine
labs in southwest Wyoming, including four in Sweetwater County.

With so much methamphetamine use in the county, parents must educate
themselves about the drug and symptoms of use, said Laura
Schmid-Pizzato, manager of Child, Adolescent and Family Services for
Southwest Counseling Services.

The organization's anti-methamphetamine campaign is to culminate with
meetings in Rock Springs on Feb. 29 and Green River on March 2.

"We're going to have our prevention specialists and hopefully some law
enforcement people" to answer questions, Swanson said.

The meetings are scheduled for 6:30-8 p.m. each night.

The drug and alcohol survey from 1997 through 1998 was funded in part
by the Wyoming Governor's Substance Abuse and Violent Crime Advisory
Board.