Georgia will soon launch an aggressive public awareness campaign based on the successful Montana Meth Project. The $6 million campaign will take aim at methamphetamine use, which is estimated to cost Georgia about $1.3 billion a year.

John M. Willis, editor and publisher of the Calhoun Times, provided the following details in a Sept. 3 article:

[Jim] Langford said the campaign will focus on preventing meth use among the state’s most vulnerable population, its young people. According to the Department of Health, 51 percent of people entering treatment for meth abuse in Georgia are between the ages of 12 and 25, substantially higher than the national average.

In 2007, 32 percent of federal drug offenses in Georgia involved meth, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Langford said Northwest Georgia had some of the highest incidences of meth use in the state of Georgia.

Langford said the Georgia Meth Project is based on similar programs in Montana and Arizona, the first two states to launch Meth Project prevention campaigns. Those states saw 45 percent reductions in teen meth use in two years, he said.

Labels: awareness, meth, methamphetamine