STUDENTS PRODUCE TV DOCUMENTARY ABOUT METH

PAOLI -- Viciousness. Losing battle. Destruction.

Those are the kinds of words that Paoli's Denny Followell uses when
he talks about the problems that drug and alcohol abuse, and
especially methamphetamine use, are bringing to Orange County and
many other places.

Followell, a former convicted drug user, will focus on the hazards of
meth and other drugs when interviewed as part of a documentary that
students in Paoli High School television production classes are preparing.

Followell has a vision for what he would like the documentary to convey.

"( I want to know) that we've been able to get the message out to
people, and to kids, about the viciousness of getting involved with
alcohol and drugs," Followell said, " and the destruction that it
causes for their lives, their education, on our society. ... They're
just fighting a losing battle."

Followell is president of Orange County FACT ( Facing Adolescent
Challenges Together) and Substance Abuse. He also teaches GED
preparation classes at the Orange County Jail, where he has come to
realize a high percentage of the jail's population is there on meth-
related charges.

Followell's concerns about the increasing incidence of meth labs in
the county made him a likely partner for producing a documentary
exploring the subject.

The project, through the school's service-learning component, had its
beginnings a couple of years ago in conversations between Followell,
Paoli Community Schools Assistant Superintendent Vic Combs, then- PHS
television production teacher Cynthia Webb and a handful of students.

Combs was aware of the seriousness of the meth problem because he
volunteers to help Followell with GED preparation classes at the jail.

" We were talking about the problem that meth causes," Combs said, "
not only from the perspective of the student, but the family
situation and then, of course, you get into the medical problems that
people have. ...

Over 75 percent of the folks he and I were talking about, our
constituents you might call them down at the jail ... were in there
because of meth."

The notion of compiling a documentary then emerged, with an eye on
eventually making it available to various entities to use as a
resource in educating people about the dangers and consequences of using meth.

Current TV production teacher Royce Turner said students put
together a half-hour show. But that work is being incorporated into
an expanded video that will include information about Indiana's
legislation to curb the clandestine production of meth and to examine
the growing problems associated with importing meth from other areas,
particularly the Southwest.

Followell said that, when the video production first began, Orange
County was in the top five counties in the state in terms of meth-
related arrests.

" We have the new laws that have reduced and curbed the meth lab
production greatly, but it's still a problem out there," Followell
said. " With the passage of the meth bill here, the crude labs, the
homemade labs, have gone down, but the importation from Mexico, the
super labs, has increased."

Followell praised Indiana for taking steps to fight the problem, but
the legislative action brought new twists. " It has been a help in
the reduction of homemade labs.

But, when you put a stopgap on one place, it brings out these others.
Now we're seeing crack cocaine being a problem. ( That's) because
there has been so much attention put on meth that now they've
switched drugs. It's like ( the abusers are saying), ' We'll get away
from the meth a little bit and let the heat cool off. We'll go back
to crack.' So, crack is a big problem now."

Followell believes working with teenagers is a big plus in getting
the message out about the consequences of drug and alcohol abuse.

He said, " You talk to kids and say, ' Do you like to be lied to?'
They'll say, ' No.' And I say, ' Why do you believe in alcohol and
drugs?' .. People believe alcohol and drugs are going to take them
away from reality and they will not have to face their problems. It
creates more problems than it cures.."

Followell has a broader goal. " I would like for us to be able to
mass produce, at some time, a film that the entire state could
benefit from. Each high school in the state of Indiana, each school
corporation would have a tape so they could share what we have done."

He added, " I want to look back and know that my hometown, my high
school where my kids go, Paoli, is one of the leading schools in the
state, fighting this dreaded disease, this affliction that we have in
our county, our nation and our state, that our kids are out front combating it."