Thursday, March 27, 2008 9:57 PM CDT
Meth fighters target potential users
By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — How about having a piece of chocolate cake after dinner? How about trying methamphetamine?
While comparing those two questions might seem “profane,” Michael Reagan said Thursday, he thinks looking at how the decision on dessert is made can help with fighting the drug. He’s part of the Illinois Meth Project, which emphasizes preventing children age 12 to 17 from trying methamphetamine.
“The decision is something like this,” Reagan said. “You begin to think, is it available, do I like it, what’s the risk, what’s the cost? With the market we’re after, it’s much the same.”
Reagan was the keynote speaker Tuesday at the Coles County Meth Awareness Coalition’s second meth “summit” that brought together representatives of law enforcement, treatment providers and other agencies that deal with the drug.
The Illinois Meth Project is behind the recent “Not Even Once” TV commercial campaign that’s being aired in the area. Reagan showed the commercials Thursday, including one with a teen going through various stages of meth addiction while continuing to claim he’s “not gonna be like that guy,” who’s already addicted.
“They give me the chills,” Reagan said of the ads. “They’re not designed to make us feel good. They’re designed to get to our target audience.”
He explained that part of the idea behind the ads is for teens to say “that’s not OK” when they hear their friends say they’re thinking about trying methamphetamine, and to get kids and parents talking about drug abuse.
Illinois is one of six states in which the national Meth Project sponsors programs. Reagan said the project began in Montana in 2005, when that state was fifth in the nation in per-capita meth use; by last year, it was 39th.
Another of Thursday’s speakers was Tom McNamara, a retired police officer who’s now part of a program that trains police to deal with methamphetamine.
He told how, when methamphetamine first appeared in Illinois, police treated it like other drugs before realizing “they had a lot of catching up to do” because it was being made and used by the same people, who weren’t often selling it.
“The first couple of years was just trying to sort out what the hell the problem was,” McNamara said.
In recent years, the state has targeted restricting access to cold medicine with pseudoephedrine, which is the only essential ingredient in both of the two methods to make the drug, he explained. The next step, which will go into place later this year, is a system that will track who buys the medicine to better determine if someone’s getting large amounts of it for methamphetamine, he said.
“We’re trying once again to cut that down,” McNamara said.
He also said local organizations such as coalitions are another important tool in the fight against the drug, and he suggested that the groups could be used for “any social problem” as “it’s the only time the entire community has gotten together.”
The Meth Awareness Coalition organized the summit, which followed a similar event a year ago, to show people how they can take part in helping with the problem, said Ke’an Rogers, the group’s president.
“We’re partnering on a regional basis with community leaders, organizations and state officials to continue to bring awareness and education on methamphetamine use and abuse locally,” she said.
Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 348-5733.
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krusayda wrote on Mar 28, 2008 10:19 AM: