Meth project’s what’s needed

www.helenair.com/articles/2006/01/29/opinions_top/a04012906_01.txt


By The Helena IR - 01/29/06

When Tom Siebel bought his sprawling ranch north of Helena, we suspect some Montanans cringed at the thought of yet another rich outsider buying up our prime real estate.

Well, it didn’t take long to realize we’d acquired a good neighbor. We just didn’t know how good.

Siebel, it turns out, is spearheading an anti-meth campaign for his adopted state that has to be the envy of the entire country.

His Montana Meth Project is based on the idea that methamphetamine is a consumer product that just happens to be distributed in a different way. Using exhaustive market research into young peoples’ attitudes and beliefs about the drug, the project already has created a series of graphic ads designed to keep kids from trying meth, even once. The hard-hitting advertising, both print and broadcast, left some mothers worried it might traumatize their very young children.

Well, according to Siebel, we haven’t seen anything yet.

Speaking at a Chamber of Commerce banquet last week, Siebel said a new round of print, radio and television ads will start in April. “One of these series is going to shake some things up,” he said. “We sent a film crew into the sewers of Montana, and we’ve got kids on film doing things that will make you shake.”

All we can say is, great. As Siebel pointed out last week, 80 percent of Montana’s jail population is locked up because of meth-related crimes. Sixty-three percent of young people in the state say meth is readily available, and 33 percent say they have been offered meth at least once in the last year. The scourge is epidemic, and despite our best efforts, we haven’t been able to make much of a dent.

The Montana Meth Project figures the most important thing we can do is convince kids not to take meth in the first place by showing them, in an honest, kid-to-kid way, what will happen to them if they do.

Siebel is convinced that a better informed “customer audience” will make better decisions. If it takes shocking ads to effectively do that, let the shocks begin.