I know everyone thinks it can't happen to their loved ones, but there is a scourge going through the USA. It is called Crystal Meth.

Montana recently started an add campaign that is visually shocking, but meth usage is down 50% and pre-employment drug screening shows a 70% decrease in meth positives.

HBO will air a documentary tomorrow night call "Montana Meth". If you have children or grand-children, or know people with children, please watch it.

I dare you to watch these YouTube videos from the Montana ad campaign.

T.O.M.~

I really really hate the cigarette commercials to discourage people from smoking. Most people that I know hate them and won't give up smoking because they hate the commercials so bad. I have never heard of anyone quiting due to the commercials. I've always felt that if poeple were going to smoke they were going to smoke regardless of the add campaigns.

Most of the people I know who have gotten involved with meth say they wish they had never tried it. I hope everyone will watch this program and get their kids and grandkids to watch it also.

I've seen some of the meth adds. They were showing them on the news here in Boise, Idaho. Idaho is thinking about doing some of the same adds. With the help of the producers of the Montana adds. I have been so impressed with the add campaign. These commercials show real life incidents. Not some wanna be bad horror flick that the cigarette commercials do.

Most of the people I know who have gotten involved in meth say they wish they had never done it....not even once. I also encourage everyone to watch this program and get your kids and grandkids to watch it also...no matter what age. People of all ages are getting into it.

T.O.M.~

I really really hate the cigarette commercials to discourage people from smoking. Most people that I know hate them and won't give up smoking because they hate the commercials so bad. I have never heard of anyone quiting due to the commercials. I've always felt that if poeple were going to smoke they were going to smoke regardless of the add campaigns.

I've seen some of the meth adds. They were showing them on the news here in Boise, Idaho. Idaho is thinking about doing some of the same adds. With the help of the producers of the Montana adds. I have been so impressed with the add campaign. These commercials show real life incidents. Not some wanna be bad horror flick that the cigarette commercials do.

Most of the people I know who have gotten involved in meth say they wish they had never done it....not even once. I also encourage everyone to watch this program and get your kids and grandkids to watch it also...no matter what age. People of all ages are getting into it.

The meth ads are pretty good. The make-up looks great, but the people still have good teeth. One of the most shocking things to me is how meth rots the teeth out of your head.

faithmd~

And meth addicts get anorexic thin. The people in the adds have too much meat on their bones to be meth addicts.

But, they are good adds

T.O.M.~

I really really hate the cigarette commercials to discourage people from smoking. Most people that I know hate them and won't give up smoking because they hate the commercials so bad. I have never heard of anyone quiting due to the commercials. I've always felt that if poeple were going to smoke they were going to smoke regardless of the add campaigns.

The chances of successfully quitting smoking are so low that I think these ads are really just trying to prevent people from starting.

And if someone really keeps poisoning their body because they don't like a tv commercial, gosh these must be the dumbest people on the planet.

These ads are great. Sometimes it takes something radical to get the attention of people-especially teens these days.

I wish the schools would give extra credit grades to every kid who watched this program. I am going to encourage Cheyenne to watch it. Failing that, I will bribe her. Hey.....whatever works, I always say.

Our town has a type of "Scared Straight" project where at risk kids are taken to Vancouver's east end. They spend a couple of days there, seeing how people live and hearing people's stories. I don't have any idea of how effective this may be.

When I lived in Vancouver in the early '70's the east end was definitely the run down poor end of town where it was easy to find drugs and anything else one may have wanted. I had no problem or fear walking through that area. However, a few months ago I ended up there late at night after a concert. I was in my car and it still scared the hell out of me. I'm an avid watcher of the show DaVinci's Inquest which takes place there and it shows it as being pretty rough, but the reality is far worse.

When I was younger my mother worked at the American Cancer Society. Both my parents also smoked. Sometimes I would go to work with my mother. I can remember - clearly - walking down the corridor that lead to her office. There were several acrylic-encased cross-sections of lungs riddled with cancer. I also remember from a very early age having a hypersenitivity to the idea of addiction, and being unwilling if not afraid to try things because I did not want to become addicted to them. I'm talking 6 or 7 years old, at the time. With two smoking parents and smoking friends in school, you'd think I would have picked up the habit. But I have not. Those acrylic-encased horrors may have just a little to do with it.

We learn the most when we are traumatized. It may take you a life time to learn not to open the envelope with your finger, because those tiny papercuts are hardly a great deterrent given the convenience, but most people only stick their hand into the fire once or twice before never doing it again. I have not seen the ads, but shock or trauma based b-mod is very powerful and effective when done correctly. I will have to go check out the clip from home this evening.

Thanks Tom,

I have an 18 year old son and he will be watching them all with me and having a long discussion. I will have to talk to my husband about my 11 year old daughter watching them.

TOM...

This is the schedule I found from HBO's web site, in case anyone else missed the March 18th show.

Montana Meth

Sunday, March 18 10:45 PM HBO2

Wednesday, March 21 5:05 AM HBO2

Thursday, March 29 3:30 AM HBO Signature

When I was younger my mother worked at the American Cancer Society. Both my parents also smoked. Sometimes I would go to work with my mother. I can remember - clearly - walking down the corridor that lead to her office. There were several acrylic-encased cross-sections of lungs riddled with cancer. I also remember from a very early age having a hypersenitivity to the idea of addiction, and being unwilling if not afraid to try things because I did not want to become addicted to them. I'm talking 6 or 7 years old, at the time. With two smoking parents and smoking friends in school, you'd think I would have picked up the habit. But I have not. Those acrylic-encased horrors may have just a little to do with it.

We learn the most when we are traumatized. It may take you a life time to learn not to open the envelope with your finger, because those tiny papercuts are hardly a great deterrent given the convenience, but most people only stick their hand into the fire once or twice before never doing it again. I have not seen the ads, but shock or trauma based b-mod is very powerful and effective when done correctly. I will have to go check out the clip from home this evening.

Tina and I visited a friend in the VA hospital in Brooklyn about 10 years ago. He was in the ward where the cancer patients who got cancer from cigarettes are and it was disgusting to see people who had had their larynx removed smoking cigarettes through the tube that they breath through in their neck. Tina quit smoking a little while after that. Our friend died shortly after also.

A coworker who had his larynx removed because of cigarette induced cancer had to keep a damp scarf around his neck to keep the breathing hole area moist. One day I noticed that it had turned brown from smoking cigars through his breathing hole.

I know a dozen people who have kicked coke, crack or heroin, and stopped drinking alcohol, but can not stop smoking.

TOM...

This is the schedule I found from HBO's web site, in case anyone else missed the March 18th show.

Montana Meth

Sunday, March 18 10:45 PM HBO2

Wednesday, March 21 5:05 AM HBO2

Thursday, March 29 3:30 AM HBO Signature

That was very nice of you.

Thanx!!

I know a dozen people who have kicked coke, crack or heroin, and stopped drinking alcohol, but can not stop smoking.

Cancer cures smoking...sooner or later.

We have a local newscaster, I think his name is Justin Hunt--(10 minutes ago I could have said it without thinking, now that doesn't sound right!!) who made a movie about meth. He did a short narrative type of movie for a film festival called "Meth Monster". It was so well received, he went on to do a full length documentary type of movie, called "American Meth" it is narrated by Val Kilmer. They held a local premiere to it the other night, and had to turn away people. The theater they showed it in only held 1600 people. They are now trying to get it into a local theater, before it goes to Sundance, and then onto the film circuit. I was unable to even try to get to the showing (had DH in the hospital)---but it is really opening some eyes here. I think there was so little known about it for years by parents, etc. it really got a good hold---and is one GIANT problem now. I am hoping it is less so by the time my grandbabies grow up. Got the kids raised, now to worry over the next generation!

I will really try to watch this one---thanks for the heads up!!

Kat

I like some of the Truth* ads. Reminds me of what Benetton was doing in the early 90s. There is one with some "cowboys" at a campfire in the street, one singing with a voice box, the other playing the guitar. The song goes something like:

Oh, you don't always die from tobacco

Sometimes you just lose a lung

Oh, you don't always die from tobacco

Sometimes they just snip out your tongue

And you won't sing worth a heck

With a big hole in your neck

Because you dont' always die from tobacco