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October 16, 2009

Fight against meth continues

“Use your voice. Fight Meth.”

That is the message on a number of banners that will be displayed in Woodward's alternative school and Sharon-Mutual schools to fight methamphetamine use.

The Northwest Center for Behavioral Health’s Area Prevention Resource Center designed the banners and had them made with funds for the “Crystal Darkness Phase Two” program.

Crystal Darkness is a state-sponsored program that attempts to raise public awareness about the meth  epidemic and how to stop it. Methamphetamine is a mind altering drug made with dangerous chemicals.

“We got a total of $6,500 (for the program),” said Ashley Ferguson, Area Prevention Resource Center coordinator in Woodward. “Of that money, $2,000 was for training, $2,500 was for curriculum and $2,000 was for media items (including the banners).”

Posters will also be used in the meth abuse prevention campaign, she said, as well as T-shirts.

The  curriculum for the students will fall under a program called “Too Good for Drugs” and will be implemented in the schools next semester, Ferguson said.

She made her announcement about the  drug abuse prevention effort during a Woodward Area Coalition meeting Thursday at High Plains Technology Center.

Money  for “Crystal Darkness Phase Two” came from the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, she said.

Both Woodward and Woods counties received $6,500 each to fight meth, she said.

In addition to the effort against meth use,  the agency will hold a reality party in the spring in Woodward as part of a statewide project to prevent alcohol use in underage students, she said.

During the reality party, Ferguson and a theater student from Northwestern Oklahoma State University  will hold a listening session with high school students to learn how they’re getting alcohol and to and from parties, Ferguson said.

“We’ll also find out what drinking games they play, what they drink and issues like sexual behaviors and violence and taking  pictures and putting them on the Internet,” she said.

“The program is to increase awareness and give parents an opportunity to talk with their kids about  (alcohol abuse),” she said.

“The Northwestern theater students are excited about it,” Ferguson said. “The program has gotten some discussion going about alcohol consumption in their own age groups.”

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Quinlan United Methodist Church Sunday school teacher Christy Linsley (left) presents High Plains Outreach Center board members Steve Jones and Juanita Fitz with blankets, while fellow Sunday school teachers Janelle Cole (second from right) and Janice Hammans (right) presents board member Kathy Jones with blankets Thursday evening. The church gathered blankets and other items during the month of January to donate to the shelter.

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