MIXED REVIEWS FOR METH 101

BULLHEAD CITY - Meth 101 informational meetings for parents staged
this spring at Bullhead City elementary and junior high schools drew a
mixed response, according to Assistant Bullhead City Police Chief
Brian Williamson.

At Friday's Bullhead City Police Department Drug Forum Education
Committee meeting, Williamson said the Meth 101 meetings attracted
anywhere from three to twenty people.

Committee co-chairman Larry Tunforss said he wanted to ask those not
attending the Meth 101 meetings, "What are you doing that's more important?"

Brian Velarde reported that 450 sixth-grade students in Bullhead City
and 150 in Fort Mojave have gone through the MethSMART program,
conducted through the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Colorado River.

The program, designed to keep kids off methamphetamine, involves
holding one-hour workshops in school classrooms four days a week for
six weeks.

Velarde said there is enough funding on hand to continue the program
for another year, with money from the state Department of Health
Services and a $10,000 donation from Harrah's.

Carol Smith-Carter from the Mohave County Department of Public Health
reported that she is putting together a speaker's panel of physicians.
She plans to reach parents with her Partnership for a Drug-Free
America at their place of employment, such as the casinos.

Smith-Carter also wants to expand her outreach programs into the
Latino community.

Tunforss said the anti-meth television commercials from Montana aimed
at junior high and high school students - known for their very graphic
nature - are running in Arizona, but apparently not yet on the network
affiliates.

Bonnie Cole and Teri Wise reported on an ongoing Youth Assessment
survey in which students were saying drug education should be part of
the school curriculum very early - no later than the second grade -
that both male and female counselors be available for students
reluctant to confide in someone of the opposite sex and that
rehabilitated teenagers participate in anti-drug classes.

The committee set its next meeting tentatively for June 14.