COLORADO METH PROJECT LAUNCHES ONLINE EFFORT TO REACH TEENS

The Colorado Meth Project has launched a digital anti-methamphetamine
campaign designed to answer teenagers' questions about the drug as
well as raise awareness about its dangers.

About 20 teenagers joined Colorado Attorney General John Suthers at
Denver's George Washington High School on Tuesday, where he announced
the new campaign and website, MethProject.org.

The website is part of the Ask MethProject.org campaign, which takes
a multimedia approach to provide teenagers with more than 350 facts
about meth. The website prompts teenagers with questions, slide shows
and personal accounts from recovering addicts.

"My guess is we will see, nationally, a large number of hits on this
website," Suthers said. "My guess is we're going to see progress from this."

According to the 2011 Colorado Meth Use and Attitude Survey, 88
percent of teenagers in the state see "great risk" in trying meth
once or twice, up 9 percentage points from 2009, when the program
started in Colorado.

The website will be integrated into classroom curricula and other
awareness programs across the state, said Kent MacLennan, executive
director of the Colorado Meth Project.

"There is an increased awareness about the dangers of the drug," Mac
Lennan said. "Now, there is a deeper opportunity to gather
information on the drug, and that's an opportunity that was missing."

One online exercise looks similar to the game "Operation." Visitors
use tweezers to collect different items from a body, and each item
details meth's effects on that part of the body.

The website coincides with the premier of three TV ads, created by
Oscar-nominated director Darren Aronofsky, and continues the graphic
nature of earlier campaigns. One ad shows a mother trying to bandage
her daughter's wrist after she attempts to commit suicide.

Ashley Hatzenbihler, a 17-year-old senior at Regis Jesuit High
School, joined the program's teen advisory council after a friend
became addicted to meth and committed suicide.

"When people see the ads, they see what happens, but they don't know
why," Hatzenbihler said. "Now, this can help answer why people in the
ads have yellow teeth."

Hatzenbihler helped 16-year-old Miyah Hall, a junior at George
Washington, navigate the website.

"I've seen the ads on TV and on billboards, but this was different,"
Hall said. "This kind of showed me what meth can really do."

Colorado ranks seventh in the nation for the number of meth users 12
and older, according to a National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

The Colorado Meth Project is a nonprofit organization and is part of
the national Meth Project, which operates in eight states.