TAKING IT TO THE SILVER SCREEN

ROGERS -- Go see a movie at a theater here and you will likely see
more than a few previews before the feature starts.

In between the warnings to shut off your cell phone and
advertisements for local businesses, a campaign to dispel myths about
methamphetamine use aims to educate young people about how the drug
could change their body and social relationships.

Over the last few years, the fight against meth has shifted from the
floors of state and national legislative bodies to the minds of
middle school and junior-high school students because users have
grown younger, said Mike Maloney.

" We want them to know that when you do that, you don't become cool
anymore, you really do place yourself in a lonely place where a lot
of people don't want to be, " he said.

Maloney, president of Maloney Marketing, serves on the Benton County
Methamphetamine Awareness Task Force, a branch of Drug-Free Rogers
Lowell. This month is the group's fourth annual Methamphetamine
Awareness Month, when Maloney will launch a series of ads as part of
an awareness campaign targeted at students.

In Benton County, 8. 23 percent of high-school seniors reported using
meth, compared to 5. 02 percent statewide, according to the 2006
Arkansas Prevention Needs Assessment Survey, which surveyed 3, 696
youth in the county about their drug-use habits and risk factors for abuse.

The survey showed that 0. 8 percent of county sixth graders reported
using meth, the same as the statewide figure, while 3. 22 percent of
county eighth graders reported using the drug, larger than the 1. 93
percent statewide figure.

Compared to other drugs, reports of meth use are relatively low, but
steadily growing. In 2005, only 5. 9 percent of seniors had reported
using meth, a figure that leaped several percentage points in 2006.
Still, other drugs are more prominent. In 2006, for example, 71. 97
percent of high-school seniors reported alcohol use, and 38. 21
percent reported marijuana use.

Still meth, which was often associated with low-income, middle-aged
adults in the past, is gaining a following among younger users, Maloney said.

Original anti-meth efforts in the county were ahead of their time, he
said, encouraging legislatures to support efforts to put
nonprescription drugs used in meth production behind the counter to
restrict their use. Law enforcement now deals with fewer home-spun
meth labs, but spends more time combating the import of the drug from
south of the border. With the shift of enforcement came a shift in
the task force too, Maloney said.

" As an organization, we didn't want to let the wind to go out of our
sails, " he said. " We really need to get to young people as soon as
we possibly can to let them know what the realities of meth use are. "

The awareness efforts were aided by a federal grant issued last
month. While a majority of the grant will help the Rogers Police
Department purchase surveillance equipment to fight the importation
of meth, $ 65, 000 will be used to produce the advertising campaign,
which Maloney produced.

To avoid tired cliches and hollow messages, the group attempted to
appeal to an issue close to the heart of young people -- themselves.

" We really tried to get into the vanity issues of what you look like
if you're a meth user, " Maloney said.

The spots, which are in both English and Spanish, focus on how
quickly the drug ages users by rotting their teeth and wrinkling
their skin and how easy it is to become addicted to the substance.

" Young people will have a little bit more of an in-yourface
experience with it in an entertaining way, " he said. " There's no
reason to try to sugar-coat this stuff. Be honest and sincere about
what you're trying to tell people, and it comes through. "

The spots follow the lead of other successful awareness campaigns
from middle American states. The Montana Meth Project implements, "
saturation-level advertising, " reaching 70 percent to 90 percent of
the state's teens three times a week as the largest single advertiser
in the state, according to the group's Web site, www. montanameth. org.

The Montana print, radio and television ads focus on the theme " Not
Even Once. " They've proved successful in lowering teen use rates by
featuring graphic, grayed out photos and footage with heavy natural
light and a rough typeface baring brutal messages.

One print piece shows a young couple with the message " My girlfriend
would do anything for me -- so I made her sell her body. " In
another, a young woman wearing only a bra claws at the skin on her
back, a common occurrence for meth abusers who hallucinate about bugs
crawling under the surface of their skin. The text reads: " Scabs,
hallucinations and body sores. Then things really get bad. "

The campaign seems to be working. Meth use by teens in Montana has
been reduced by half since the spots were launched in 2005, while the
rates have remained the same in the rest of the country, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The Benton County task force hopes a similar approach will succeed
locally to lower the statistics of use in the area. After several
hour-long focus groups, Maloney determined that the same old
educational techniques wouldn't work anymore. Young people are
relational, and their own encounters with the ill effects of drug use
will convince them more than any cliche ever will, he said.

" When they talk to each other, they talk very intelligently about
social issues, and they do not talk with the cliches, " Maloney said.
" They all know someone who has been there, and they can relate to
that. No one is purely innocent anymore. "