Alerting Alaskans to the dangers of the illegal, destructive and highly addictive drug methamphetamine, the statewide Alaska Meth Education Program will launch an all-out media blitz this spring.

Last year, the Tri-Borough Commission mayors representing the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Matanuska-Susitna Borough and the Municipality of Anchorage, committed to create the Alaska Meth Education (AME) program. That program has become a statewide effort. Tim Anderson, former Mat-Su Borough mayor, is coordinator of the AME program. He addressed the Feb. 8 meeting of the commission in Soldotna, as well as a meeting of the Peninsula Conference of Mayors held the same day.

According to Anderson, the media campaign will use television, radio and newspapers in an effort to educate Alaskans about the increasing threat of meth use and to reach Alaska youth with the slogan “Never a First Time.”

In a memo to the mayors, Anderson said AME’s mission is developing a program to provide prevention materials (videos, print materials and training materials) for distribution to school districts, youth clubs, parents, medical facilities and other outlets.

The media blitz will mirror similar efforts used in other states that have proved successful in raising public awareness. AME also hopes to sponsor and hold a statewide conference on methamphetamine.

A secondary goal, Anderson said, is to seek additional funding for the project. The Kenai Peninsula Borough has participated through Central Peninsula Hospital, which last week presented Anderson and the AME program with $25,000. Borough Mayor John Williams said there also had been financial participation by the cities of Kenai and Soldotna.

The estimated 2007 project budget of around $302,000 will be spent on the media advertising campaign, various educational materials, community resource kits, assistance grants, the meth education summit and administrative costs.

While Alaska’s growing meth problem could be said to be small compared to other places in the country, its growth led Mat-Su and Anchorage governments to include calls for anti-meth laws in their legislative priority lists over the past few years. Some laws have been passed at the state and federal levels, such as those restricting sales of cold remedies containing chemicals that can be turned into methamphetamine.

Recent studies have shown that 6 percent of Alaska high school students have used meth at least once, said Anderson’s wife, Mary. In 2005, five meth labs were discovered on the Kenai Peninsula, she said. Alaskans need to be aggressive in attacking the problem and can learn from other states, she said.

Also planned is an in-school program to be added to school health curricula, Mary Anderson said. She noted a new anti-meth program launched by the Boys and Girls Club, and training kits to educate communities similar to what she called “meth 101” programs in other states that include ways to recognize a meth lab. Another program being started in Fairbanks is called Meth Watch, similar to Crime Watch, she said.

AME is seeking private donations and has a fund at the Alaska Community Foundation. You can visit the program’s Web site at www.AlaskaMethEd.com.