State officials on Friday, Feb. 22, took the wraps off a $1 million campaign designed to show teens and young adults what methamphetamine addiction can do to their physical and mental health. The message that meth slowly kills is being presented graphically through print, broadcast and outdoor ads, as well as a Web site.

Zerometh is a joint effort of the Alabama District Attorney’s Association and Gov. Bob Riley. The project is also aided by the support of Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and others in the state’s congressional delegation.

“Meth is one of the biggest crimes for district attorneys across the state,” said ADAA Executive Director Randy Hillman. He said the program was born after Riley was invited along on a May 2006 drug raid in Etowah County (Gadsden).

Hillman said, “We wanted him to see firsthand what’s going on out there. We executed a search warrant. We let him go to the briefing and look at some ice (the purest form of meth, often coming from Mexico), then took him on the raid itself. We let him see the criminal and social consequences of meth.”

Several children in Etowah County had already been “slaughtered by someone strung out on meth,” Hillman said. He pointed out Riley had already been considering an anti-meth campaign, and he matched money from Shelby’s office to help get things off the ground.

“You have to do your best to scare the you know what out of them,” said Hillman. “Make the picture such a departure from where they are.”

Hillman said he always knew crack cocaine was a very harmful drug, but added, “This is exponentially worse.”

There are vast physical side effects to using methamphetamine, according to Hillman. He said, “You’re putting all kinds of solvents into your body that don’t belong there. When you see pictures of people with sores on them — they’re called meth bugs — they’re chemicals trying to find their way out.”

At one time, so-called “mom and pop” meth labs used to be an increasing problem in mostly rural areas like Baldwin County, but Hillman said tighter control of the ingredients needed to make the drug have shut down many such operations. Now, much of the finished product comes across the southern border and is being transported along the Interstate 10 corridor.

“Putting brands like Sudafed behind the counter helped,” Hillman said. “But it’s been replaced by superlabs from Mexico who import compounds from elsewhere. Atlanta is a major distribution hub, and it trickles down from there.”

Baldwin County District Attorney Judy Newcomb agrees. She said, “Most is being brought in. Some ingredients in agriculture were once used in meth here. Increased demand, and harder-to-find ingredients made it worth bringing it in.”

The county has been fairly fortunate lately, however. Newcomb said, “I feel fairly confident that meth in our high schools has not been a major problem. We want to make sure that continues by showing how damaging meth can be to your life. It damages lives and families.”

She noted that in years past, crimes directly or indirectly related to the use of illegal substances and alcohol commanded around 80 percent of the court docket.

“People are usually committing the crime to help them support a habit,” Newcomb said. “In any sort of drug use, there’s peer pressure in groups of people using drugs. The theory behind the commercials is to take the glamour out of it. If kids would stop and think about what path it might take them down, they might not take it. It’s about educating them about choices, and providing a good environment to grow up in.”

Hillman said a similar push in Montana begun in 2005 also used a graphic, albeit different, message to successfully reduce the use of meth. A similar effort is in place in Tennessee.

Three TV commercials portraying the negative effects of methamphetamine addiction are the centerpiece of the Alabama program. Each shows average teens succumbing to the effects of the drug in a frightening progression. The print and outdoor ads mirror the television campaign.

It is hoped Zerometh will be the first step in creating an open statewide dialog about the dangers of meth use. The program is not called the Alabama Meth Project, Hillman said, because meth knows no borders and nearby states might soon adopt the campaign.

“Without Senator Shelby, Governor Riley and Judy Newcomb, we wouldn’t be here,” he said.

To learn more about the campaign, and to view some of the ads, visit www.zerometh.com.