This week, the United Way of Kosciusko County is staging an offensive assault against a formidable foe that destroys communities - meth. In a mission to raise awareness about the drug that has Kosciusko County in the forefront of the methamphetamine business, and to push community residents to a reinvigorated website with tips to recovery, the United Way’s “Meth Awareness Campaign” is an extensive and overarching fight against the big fight. Billboards with anti-meth messages will be risen across the community, brandishing messages like “Before meth I was a good mother. Can you tell?” with a photograph of a gravestone. United Way Community Impact Coordinator Mary Gerard said the advertising-heavy campaign is really built on drawing the community to a new-to-you website, www.killingacommunity.com, which has been reinvented with high-level information to serve a community bent on suffocating meth. Gerard said www.killingacommunity.com, which launched last year but has been rejuvenated, updated and redesigned, contains helpful tips on treating the meth problem, cleaning up meth trash, coping with a meth user, and other suggestions for addicts, teens, parents and concerned citizens alike. This campaign is the United Way’s latest chapter in its long-running battle with meth and awareness of its dangers. Several years ago it spearheaded a successful effort to lock up ammonia tanks on farms that were illegally being tampered with to use to make meth. It also pushed an ultimately unsuccessful effort in the state legislature to see pseudoephedrine available by prescription only. In fall 2010, the United Way held a call-out meeting designed to bring awareness of meth. Some 600 people came out, from addicts to addicts’ families to law enforcement and any resident in between. That proved an interest in nipping the problem in the bud was not only alive, but breeding. So now, a widespread effort to spread the damning word of meth is being held beginning today. Also this week, in conjunction with the United Way’s campaign, the Times-Union will run a series of stories which look into the meth epidemic in this county, and the issues the drug poses on a community.
