Blog #4 A Current Event

Methamphetamine is an extremely dangerous and addicting drug that affects many communities throughout the United States and is an issue among the teen community as well.  Meth does not only affect the user but also affects innocent people, including children because of the paranoia affect it has on its user and unsafe environment in which Meth is made.  Statistics show that 13 million people in the United States are regular methamphetamine users and 4.5% of high school seniors have admitted to using meth at least once.

Meth is not a new drug; it was created in Japan in the 1900s.  The usage of the powerful drug became heavily used during WWII to keep soldiers awake longer to complete their missions.  Not long after, the drug became available to the public and was used as a prescription to fight illnesses such as depression.  Soon after, the drug was used by athletes and college students for the same reason it had been used in WWII by the Japanese.   The United States eventually made Meth illegal and is presently available all over the country mostly due to Mexican drug cartels smuggling it into the United States.

            Methamphetamine use and addiction needs to be stopped and children of our society should never come in contact with meth let alone become users.  Although there are some great programs for methamphetamine awareness and the number of users has significantly dropped over the past few years, there is still room for improvement.  The best fight against the war on drugs is education, and it should be mandatory that children learn about drugs, meth in particular, in school.  By learning what is going into their bodies, and learning how to say no when peer pressured, the number of high school meth users will drop.  In high school I was an active participant in an organization called the Montana Meth Project. The Montana Meth Project has done a tremendous job of getting the message across to teens by television, radio, billboards, newspaper, and the Internet.  The organization does a great job of getting teens involved in the movement. The Montana Meth Project is the largest advertiser in Montana and their messages reach 70-90% of teens 3-5 times per week.  In 2005 Montana ranked number 5 in the nation for meth use.  Since their campaign launched, meth use declined 67% among the teen population.  If every community did what the Montana Meth Project does there would be hardly any teens abusing this dangerous drug.