U.S. drug czar launches meth ad campaign in Missouri

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Hoping to encourage neighbors and communities to help in the fight against methamphetamine, the nation's drug czar launched an ad campaign Monday warning that the secondhand effects of meth labs can ruin the health of non-users.

The 30-second public service announcements will start running on television in Springfield -- the third-largest city in a state that leads the nation in illegal meth lab seizures -- and will go to 22 other cities in coming weeks, in a campaign run jointly with the Partnership for a Drug Free America.

It comes as the Bush administration and many states are stepping up efforts to stop the spread of meth, an addictive stimulant that can be prepared or "cooked" in makeshift labs with over-the-counter cold tablets and common household chemicals.

"The meth problem needs the individual contribution of more citizens in their neighborhoods and their communities," said John Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy

"We want people to understand the consequences for their health and their property values," Walters told a news conference where the five ads were presented.

Two of the ads spotlight the problems that chemicals from an illicit meth lab can cause to people living nearby or who move into a house unaware of the illegal activity.

In one ad called "Nurse," a man coughs and wheezes while undergoing a medical examination. A nurse asks him about his medical history while a narrator says, "He won't tell her he's been inhaling crystal meth -- because he doesn't know."

It goes on to say he recently moved into a house that was used for a meth lab and is still toxic. It ends with the tag line "So, who has the drug problem now?" and refers viewers to a Web site, www.drugfree.org/Meth

The Web site is a catalogue of information about how meth hurts communities, including toxic byproducts, crime and the plight of children of meth cookers and addicts.

Three other ads spotlight the effects of meth on individuals, with two children talking about how their lives fell apart when their parents started making meth at home and a young man in a jail cell describing how he turned to crime after becoming addicted to the drug.

The anti-meth ads will also run in Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Des Moines, Grand Rapids, Miami, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Minneapolis, Portland, Raleigh-Durham, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle, Savannah, Tampa and St. Petersburg.

Missouri has led the nation in meth lab seizures each year since 2001. In 2004, the total of all meth lab findings, including chemical dumpsites and discarded lab equipment, was 2,707, more than double the number in runner-up Iowa with 1,300, according to national statistics released by the White House drug control office.

"Methamphetamine is the worst drug I've encountered in my nearly 20 years in public life," said Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., who attended the news conference.

The ads were produced for free for the Partnership for a Drug Free America by the ad agencies Leo Burnett of Chicago and J. Walter Thompson of New York.