CHICAGO, IL, December 15 – Drug prevention, treatment, government and law enforcement representatives joined forces with the Partnership for a Drug-Free America today to launch a hard-hitting series of public service ads targeting the growing manufacture and use of methamphetamine (meth) in Illinois.

The campaign, developed by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, is designed to mobilize individuals and community groups to reduce meth use at the local level. Combining real-life stories of people affected by methamphetamine with scenarios that depict the unique secondhand threat meth poses to communities at large, the campaign challenges people to learn more about the threats meth poses to their homes and families.

“Meth is an especially devastating drug that leads to quick addiction and long-term health issues,” explained Karel Ares, executive director of Prevention First, a statewide drug prevention nonprofit that is the Partnership’s Illinois affiliate. Adding to the group’s concerns is that the people who make meth do it in their homes and apartments where children and unsuspecting visitors and neighbors are exposed to a toxic environment. “This isn’t just about stopping users, it’s about making people aware of the harm to all of us caused by meth in our communities,” Ares noted.

Governor Rod Blagojevich, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Cook County State’s Attorney Dick Devine, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Illinois State Police, AIDS Foundation of Chicago and Chicago Crystal Meth Task Force, among others, have signed on as supporters of the ad campaign.

The Illinois State Police reported that meth lab seizures skyrocketed from 24 in 1997 to 962 in 2004. Records show nearly 3,500 meth users in treatment statewide. A Chicago Department of Public Health survey found an alarming meth use trend among gay men, who reported using the drug at significantly higher rates (11 percent) than other adult males (2 percent). The perception that meth labs are a rural problem ended when a major meth lab was discovered in a Chicago apartment building in September.

“With concern about meth spreading across America and being introduced to a new generation unfamiliar with the lethal nature of this drug, education and preventative action are essential,” said Steve Pasierb, President and CEO of the Partnership. “If we can persuade parents and community leaders to take a stand against this drug, we can ensure that meth will not become the next drug of choice.”

One of the public service ads is set in an apartment building where a little girl inhales fumes coming from the meth being made in the apartment below. The most gripping spots feature real recovering meth addicts and two girls whose parents made meth in their kitchens. “One night the police came in with white suits and gas masks,” a young girl says in one ad. “I was taken to the hospital and decontaminated.”

“While these important public service announcements reveal the consequence of individual abuse, they also starkly illustrate the destructive and heartbreaking ripple effects felt by family, friends and loved ones,” noted Jim Pickett, co-chair of the Chicago Crystal Meth Task Force and director of public policy for the Aids Foundation of Chicago. “Whole communities are negatively impacted by crystal meth use.”

The advertising campaigns were created pro bono for the Partnership by two agencies, Leo Burnett of Chicago and J. Walter Thompson of New York. The research-based campaigns were subject to rigorous qualitative testing, and proved resonant among community members, spurring them to seek information on meth and to take part in their community’s efforts to fight the drug. All of the spots direct audiences to a newly-created microsite on the Partnership’s Web site, www.drugfree.org/meth.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America is a nonprofit coalition of communication, health, medical and educational professionals working to reduce illicit drug use and help people live healthy, drug-free lives. Prevention First provides information and educational resources to professionals addressing drug abuse and related issues such as teen pregnancy and violence. In addition to the public service campaign, Prevention First is working with coalitions in Illinois and with professionals in local communities to support their meth-fighting efforts.

Resources in Illinois are available at www.drugfree.org/il or www.prevention.org.