Pubdate: Thu, 06 Dec 2007
Source: Times-News, The (ID)
Copyright: 2007 Magic Valley Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.magicvalley.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/595
Author: Nate Poppino
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METH PROJECT SET TO LAUNCH IN JANUARY

KIMBERLY - Eleven months of campaigning seems to have  paid off for 
the Idaho Meth Project.

Debbie Field, director of the Idaho Office of Drug  Policy, told a 
gathering of city and county officials  Wednesday night that the $2.7 
million media campaign  will launch during the first week of January 
to  coincide with Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's Jan. 7  State of 
the State address.

Field said she is hoping the campaign, modeled after a  highly 
successful project in Montana and even using  some of the same ads, 
will convince teens ages 12 to 17  not to try meth. About $1.4 
million has been raised  through private donations for the project, 
she said, enough to pay for the campaign for the first quarter 
of  2008 and one-half of the second.

"The pain people are experiencing in our state turned  into a 
passion," she said, adding later that the money  is about what she 
expected to raise since the project  began earlier this year.

Field's presentation to the quarterly Twin Falls County  city/county 
meeting, attended by officials from  Murtaugh to Filer, lacked the 
disturbing images,  stories and videos of meth-addicted teens 
featured in  some of her community presentations.

Instead, Field focused on numbers. Meth has a 95  percent addiction 
rate, she said. Taxpayers pay $55 a  day for each of 3,331 male 
prisoners in jail because of  meth.

And she focused on what she described as the incredible  support the 
program has received from all areas of the  state - the Magic Valley 
chief among them, she said.  Some of the money raised, she 
emphasized, came from  small donations and sales of "Not Even Once" 
wristbands  - the slogan also used for the Montana campaign. 
And  Twin Falls Dr. David McClusky, she said after her  presentation, 
plans to seek $1 million from the state's  Millennium Endowment Fund, 
money from its tobacco  settlement, to largely finish off the 
fundraising for  the year.

Montana's project moved the state from fifth in the  nation in terms 
of methamphetamine trafficking and use  to 39th in one year. Idaho 
took over that fifth-place  ranking, Field said, and she hopes its 
project can  accomplish the same thing.

Any long-term benefits from the campaign will require  even more 
funds in the future. But Field said she  thinks fundraising will 
become even easier once people  see what the ads can do.

"We're going to be at it full-time," she said.

Her office has accomplished more than just fundraising,  Field said. 
Idaho is now the only state with one set  tool for assessing the 
level of drug use among its  citizens, she said. And she's working to 
change state  Medicaid rules so the service pays for drug 
treatment  for those eligible.

Her work received kudos from at least a couple of those  assembled 
Wednesday evening. Twin Falls City Councilman  David E. Johnson 
thanked Field for her work, and  regional Health and Welfare director 
John Hathaway  applauded the establishment of an interagency council 
that reviews and approves all uses for anti-drug  funding among the 
eight state agencies that receive it.

"It's an opportunity to bring everybody into a  coordinated effort," 
Hathaway said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom