Methamphetamine

Methamphetamine Watch: Ads Battle Methamphetamine in Montana

Photo Courtesy of Montana Meth Project

New York Times: With Scenes of Blood and Pain, Ads Battle Methamphetamine in Montana

The camera follows the teenager as she showers for her night out and looks down to discover the drain swirling with blood. She turns and sees her methamphetamine-addicted self cowering below, oozing from scabs she has picked all over her body because the drug made her think there were bugs crawling beneath her skin, and she lets out a scream worthy of “Psycho.”

Turn on prime time television here, and chances are this or another commercial like it will interrupt.

The spots are part of the Montana Meth Project, a saturation campaign paid for by Thomas M. Siebel, a software billionaire and part-time resident who fell in love with Montana’s vast skies and soaring mountains as a ranch hand in college and now wants to shock the state away from a drug that has ravaged it.

Since it began in September, the project has become the biggest advertiser in the state, blanketing radio, television, newspapers and billboards with advertisements so raw that officials quickly asked that they be removed from television before 7 p.m. Now, with other states expressing interest in the campaign, Mr. Siebel and state officials say they want to make it a national template for halting a problem that has cursed many largely poor, rural states.

READ IT ALL

The Montana Meth Project website is here.

The Montana Meth Project Televison ads are here.

Bathtub (:30)



Laundrymat (:30)



Eyebrow (:30)



Just Once (:30)



That Guy (:30)



Like most states, Montana has restricted pseudoephedrine, the cold medicine that is the key ingredient in homemade methamphetamine, only to discover that demand for the drug remains just as high and has been met by imported methamphetamine.

State officials say the drug is responsible for 80 percent of the prison population — and 90 percent of female inmates — and about half the foster care population.

“It’s destroying families; it’s destroying our schools; it’s destroying our budgets for corrections, social services, health care,” Gov. Brian Schweitzer said. “We’re losing a generation of productive people. My God, at the rate we’re going, we’re going to have more people in jail than out of jail in 20 years.

Education is the key to combating this HORRID drug.

The Combat Methamphetamine Act which will be passed when The Patriot Act is signed into law will help and tighter border control laws/enforcement aimed at Mexican drug cartels are imperative.

Meth: Not Even Once……..

Previous:

Combat Methamphetamine Act of 2005 Watch: Bill Dies with Patriot Act Extension


Methaphetamine Watch: Mexico Cuts Cold-Drug Imports to Battle Meth


Mexico: Primary Source of United States Methamphetamine Crisis


Methamphetamine: Oregon Tightens the Prescription of Pseudoephedrine


Combat Methamphetamine Act of 2005 Watch: Bill Setback in House-Senate Committee


The Methamphetamine Files


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