Many praise gritty ad campaign for steep decline in meth use in Montana

Methamphetamine use has fallen 66 percent among high school students and 70 percent among adults in Montana over the past few years, reports The Billings Gazette. Citing state surveys, Jennifer McKee and Noelle Straub report that 4.6 percent of high school students used meth at least once last year, a drop from 13 percent in 1999. That news, coupled with the 70 percent drop in adult use of meth over the past two years, has leaders praising The Montana Meth Project and its gritty ad campaign, McKee and Straub write.

The results have been "more significant than any prevention effort in history," project founder Thomas Siebel said at a Washington news conference with Montana's congressional delegation. In the last two years, Montana has gone from fifth nationally in per-capita meth use to 39th, and its meth-related crime rate has fallen by 53 percent. Meanwhile, adult meth use increased by 6 percent in Wyoming and 8 percent in South Dakota over the last two years.

"The Montana Meth Project is the two-year-old campaign that features graphic television, radio and billboard ads showing the effects of meth use, including rotten teeth, wasted and pock-marked bodies and losing one's virginity in a dirty bathroom," McKee and Straub write. Siebel, who funded the project, told the Senate Finance Committee that 10 more states could have their own with $40 million in federal funding. (Read more) To view the 12 television ads of The Montana Meth Project, go here. To see the print ads, go here. (Note: The ads are very graphic.)