Tribal leaders unveil new 'meth toolkit'

[blackcrowheart]

Tribal leaders unveil new 'meth toolkit'

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The use of highly addictive methamphetamine is
endangering tribal cultures across the nation, leaders with the National
Congress of American Indians said Monday, unveiling a new "meth toolkit"
to help communities battle what they called a looming crisis.

"Meth is a lot different than marijuana and alcoholism, which is more
long term," NCAI president Joe Garcia said during a news conference in
Anchorage, where the organization is meeting this week. "With meth, the
effects are almost immediate."

American Indians have been especially wracked by the drug, with an abuse
rate of 1.7 percent, almost three times the rate for whites, according
to NCAI statistics. On some reservations, addiction rates are closer to
30 percent.

"Meth threatens to eradicate an entire generation," said Carl Artman,
the assistant secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. "This is
something we cannot waste a lot of time on."

The multimedia toolkit _ packaged in a large colorful box _ is the
product of a joint effort between tribal leaders, BIA and NCAI, one of
the nation's oldest organizations serving indigenous groups, including
Alaska Natives.

Inside the box are information sheets and CDs detailing the devastating
effects of meth on health and families, and the damage to the
environment from dumping toxic chemicals used to make the drug. There
are stickers for children and a poster showing photos of a female
addict's deteriorating face over a 10-year span.

The kit, developed in consultation with Montana State University,
contains a wealth of information invaluable to schools, courts, law
enforcement and health communities, officials said. The CDs can be
edited to customize to a community's needs, said Heather Dawn Thompson,
the NCAI's director of governmental affairs.

The kits will cost about $130 to cover the cost of production and can be
purchased through the NCAI. Officials said they hope states will step in
with funding.

www.ncai.org/

[Okwes]

[Image and video hosting by TinyPic]
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Photo by Brian Daffron -- NCAI President Joe Garcia; Gerald Ignace,
president of the Association of American Indian Physicians; and Alina
Diaz, associate director of Multicultural Content Development with the
Partnership for a Drug-Free America, attended a press conference
launching an anti-methamphetamine print and radio campaign to
specifically target American Indian and Native Alaskan audiences.

Fighting 'a new smallpox'
Posted: May 21, 2008
by: Brian Daffron / Today correspondent

Native, federal organizations launch meth awareness campaign

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - With drums and singing from Gathering of Nations
Powwow in the distance, the National Congress of American Indians, in
conjunction with other federal and Native organizations, launched an
anti-methamphetamine print and radio campaign to specifically target
American Indian and Native Alaskan audiences.

''What's one of the culprits in hitting that health and making us go
down south? That is the use of drugs, alcoholism and other things,''
NCAI President Joe Garcia said. ''When we assess which is the most
devastational drug there is, it's methamphetamine. We've got to do
something more than just talk about it. We've got to engage and create a
vehicle by which we can move forward. The end result is this, but it
took a lot of work, and it took a lot of bodies, took a lot of minds,
took a lot of resources to get to where we are. NCAI is just one
partner.

''

Garcia said the campaign began nearly three years ago with a press
conference on Native initiatives targeted toward the youth. The new ad
campaign is a culmination of this work and is a collaborative effort
between organizations such as NCAI and the Department of the Interior,
BIA, Association of American Indian Physicians, Partnership for a
Drug-Free America, and state and local agencies.

The campaign features Native youth in different activities such as
fishing, drum-making, beadwork and ''rez ball,'' using the common
phrase: ''There are lots of cool things about being Native. Meth isn't
one of them.

''

''I think the campaign reflects the needs, the look and feel of the
Native community,'' said Alina Diaz, associate director of Multicultural
Content Development for the Partnership. ''When a teen sees one of these
posters, they feel that could be themselves in that situation. They
really identify themselves with the campaign. Our hope is that by
looking at these ads and by listening to the radio spots, they think
about it twice, and they consider their future and their other
activities that they can do besides doing drugs and meth.

''

One of the ad campaign's partners was Alternative Marketing Solutions, a
Native-owned marketing agency based in Phoenix. Upon completion,
focus-group testing for the campaign included Native communities in
Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico and South Dakota, with help from the Native
Wellness Institute.

''We are targeting that group which is also targeted by methamphetamines
- the students, the youth,'' said outgoing Assistant Secretary of Indian
Affairs Carl Artman. ''We have a large network of schools across the
nation - 184 schools in 23 states and 63 reservations. We're going to be
making sure that these posters are distributed at schools so that the
students there can not only see the positive messages being portrayed
here and about being Native American.

''Hopefully, that message will resonate with them, and they will go out
and take that message back to their home, their families, their
siblings, their parents and the rest of the community so they can have
that community-wide dialogue about the impact of meth and how that's not
a Native American trait. They have to work together as a community to
stop that.

''

Statistically, American Indians are more affected by methamphetamine use
than any other American community, causing a vast increase in domestic
violence, child neglect and other human- and property-related crimes. In
New Mexico alone, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish said that 85 percent of all
foster care children in her state are in state custody as a direct or
indirect influence of methamphetamine.

''In New Mexico, we have 22 sovereign entities. We know that it's not
just about Native American country,'' she said. ''It's also about our
whole state. In fact, what's happened in the urban areas - the
eradication in the urban areas has pushed it out into the rural areas of
New Mexico.

''We have to be partners. We have to get rid of the production. But
since we know it's still here, we have to really concentrate on
prevention because the rehab option is the most expensive and the
hardest to do.

''

''One of the more global impacts that you're seeing across the
reservations is methamphetamines because of how it kills - actually
kills an individual,'' Artman said.

''It turns the mind against the body. It is killing a generation -
perhaps even two generations - of Native Americans. Not only are we
losing people there, but we are losing entire tribes. We're losing
culture, language, history; and that is something that we have to stop.
We have to fight against those who distribute meth, because it's
essentially like a new smallpox, but we've been lured into it.

''

In addition to the destruction of Native family units and Native
culture, meth causes other health problems throughout Native
communities. Dr. Gerald Ignace, president of the AAIP, said that meth is
also linked to other blood-borne diseases.

''Methamphetamine, in addition to having the problems of being addictive
and causing euphoria, is also associated with an increased risk of
suicides, increased risk for developing infections such as HIV/AIDS and
Hepatitis C,'' Ignace said. ''There's a whole host of things that tend
to go along with it.

''

''In the younger crowd, we also see a lot of teen pregnancy out there,
not just in Indian country, but across the land,'' Garcia added, about
effects of meth.

''If methamphetamine is a part of that, and we see our innocent ones
that are going to be born already addicted. A devastation, that's what I
think. We're almost to the epidemic mode now. We've got to curtail it.

''

The common theme among these participants is that this prevention
campaign is one of many tools in what many Native, federal and state
leaders see as not just a generic ''war on drugs'' but as a true war in
Indian country in which there will be many battles that need a united
front against it.

''It's going to have a great, great positive impact on how we can battle
and how we can kill meth,'' Garcia said. ''This meth campaign is a
result of our efforts: and we visited a lot of communities, talked to a
lot of tribal leaders, talked to a lot of community members, and talked
to a lot of youth. This hits home, but it's also a way to broadcast
publicly all over this country. I think it's going to be a great thing.

''

http://www. indiancountrytoday. com/content. cfm?id=1096417295
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[ostrem62]

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