Courtesy Montana Meth Project

A video still frame from a series of anti-meth ads currently airing in Montana

BILLINGS, MT - As efforts to cut down on the use of methamphetamine use in the State of Idaho gear up, many are looking across the border to a groundbreaking project in Big Sky Country.

The Montana Meth Project launched a gritty ad campaign two years ago with one major purpose: stop teens from trying meth.

Billionaire Thomas Siebel donated $5.6 million to start the program, and soon these ads saturated the airwaves, and publications across the state.

“We have created tremendous awareness about the dangers of meth, and our efforts to unsell meth in Montana,” Montana Meth Project chairman Mike Gulledge said. “Research tells us its working with awareness.”

A 2007 survey shows 84 percent of teens now believe there is risk in taking the drug even once or twice.

Results encourage

The Montana Attorney General says preliminary results across the state are encouraging with meth use among Montana teens down 38 percent.

Hospital admissions because of the drug are declining, the number of people--testing positive for meth in the workplace is down 73 percent and Meth related crimes have dropped 53 percent.

At the Yellowstone County Detention Center in Billings the evidence that meth is often combined with crime is clear.

"It would probably be a safe assumption to say that the majority of them have either used meth or have been using meth for sometime in their life and have and experienced it,” Capt. Dennis McCave said.

In addition to the ads, schools are stepping up education efforts.

At West High School in Billings, the entire student body viewed a documentary on meth abuse and its effects.  Organizers of the Montana Meth Project say efforts like this, only help stop more teens from trying the drug.

“Its not just one effort, not just the awareness campaign and our research, but our efforts in lockstep with others are making all the difference, yes,” Gulledge said.

At $6 million per year, The Montana Meth Project is the state's largest advertising campaign  - and its not going away anytime soon.

Gullege says this new round of ads focus on the effects meth has on the family

He says the Montana Meth Project will continue to hold a strong presence in cities like Billings and across the state for decades to come.

Ads create a buzz among target audience

These graphic ads debuted on television, radio and in print two years ago across Montana and quickly became a talking point for many families.

“When they first started coming out it was the buzz around school,” Billings high school principal Bob Whalen said. “A lot of kids talked about it.”

A preliminary report on the impact of those ads shows meth related crimes are down in Montana as well as the number of people who tested positive for the drug in the workplace but the state's attorney general says the social and economic impact of meth is still evident. 

The Montana Attorney General says 50 percent of inmates in jail or prisons in the state are there because of meth related crimes. It’s a similar story at the Yellowstone County Detention Center in Billings.

“The people who come in here repeatedly, dry out while in here and then they come back and are high again,” McCave said.

That is exactly what worries Dr. Brenda Roche- a neuropsychologist who sits on the board for the Montana Drug Courts. 

Dr. Roche says the ads are good at spreading awareness about meth but the campaign doesn't do anything to help treat those who already have an addiction.

“It has decreased the number of people getting into treatment because they don't think that they have a problem,” she said. “They are just using recreationally because they don't look like the billboards.”

Some worry about harm

“I am recovering meth addict and I don't symbolize those pictures on TV,” Robbin Iverson said.

Iverson began using meth at age 12. She says these ads would not have stopped her from starting and now at 40 years old- the ads only trigger her need for meth.

“A crack pipe, when I saw that it was a trigger for me because its a sensation for the taste,” Iverson said.

“I think more people are aware of meth and its affects,” Roche said. “But information alone has never solved it. We have to find solutions to it and that’s where we have gone wrong is we don't have that in place.”

Right now the Thomas Siebel Foundation along with other private donations supply the Montana Meth Project's budget at $6 million per year.

Treatment programs in Montana are funded with just under $500,000.

“If they are going to put that much money into prevention then they have to put that much money into law enforcement and treatment,” Roche said.

“I think treatment is important but I also think awareness to stop the cycle of meth is just as important,” Gullege said.

The next step in this state's war on meth is finding more money for treatment programs. Montana's Attorney General says they are working on getting more funding for the drug courts but he along with Montana Meth Project Organizers agree- these ads- are putting a dent in first time use across the state.