Montana Meth Project

The Montana Meth Project is a Montana-based organization founded by billionaire Thomas Siebel which seeks to reduce methamphetamine abuse, particularly among teenagers. The main venture of the Montana Meth Project is a saturation-level advertising campaign of television, radio, and print ads which graphically depict the consequences of methamphetamine use. Common elements are the deterioration of each teenage subject's health and living conditions, amphetamine psychosis, moral compromise, and regret.

Effectiveness

The Meth Project Foundation claims that since the inception of the program in 2005, Montana has seen a 45% decrease in teen methamphetamine use, a 72% decrease in adult methamphetamine use, and a 62% decline in methamphetamine-related crimes. However, scrutiny of their proprietary surveys and data from the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy do not support their claims. The Meth Project’s most recent survey shows that teen/young adult usage of meth increased and has remained above the 2005 baseline usage level. From the Montana Meth Project's Use & Attitudes Survey of 2008:

2005	2006	2007	2008
2%	6%	4%	3%

In November of 2006, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) published a report, Pushing Back Against Meth: A Progress Report on the Fight, highlighting the impact of recently enacted State and Federal laws, such as the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005, that restricted transactions for the over the counter drugs that can be used to manufacture methamphetamine. Based on the results of Quest Diagnostics' preliminary review of workplace drug tests conducted during the first five months of 2006, the nationwide adult usage of meth declined by 12% when compared to the same period in 2005. Since the State laws vary widely in content and in the amount of time they had been in place, Quest provided state-level results. On the state level, results varied according to the strictness and duration of their laws. Vermont’s adult meth use decreased by 79.5%, and in New Mexico there was a 60.5% decline. Conversely, Michigan’s adult meth use increased by 73.3% and Washington DC increased by 115.24%. "Montana’s methamphetamine precursor law went into effect July 1st 2005. The Montana law is stricter than the CMEA in several important respects." Montana’s workplace drug testing results showed a 69.4% decrease in positive tests for amphetamine. Montana's Attorney General and the Montana Meth Project attribute Montana's decrease in adult meth usage to the Montana Meth Project. However, the new state and federal precursor laws were the only common factor for states with declines in adult meth usage. Vermont and New Mexico did not have the Meth Project or anything resembling it. The ONDC declares in their report: "The primary reason for this positive trend is the enactment of various State laws...which implemented restrictions on transactions involving products containing certain chemicals (primarily, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine) that can be used to make methamphetamine."

As these examples demonstrate, the Montana Meth Project's presentation of their own data and the data of other, unrelated organizations can be inaccurate and misleading. In his recent article, Drugs, Money, and Graphic Ads: A Critical Review of the Montana Meth Project, David Erceg-Hurn examines, in detail, Montana Meth Project's statistical methodology and data reporting. He concludes, “The MMP’s [Montana Meth Project's] misleading interpretation and inadequate reporting of data has resulted in the public forming distorted and inaccurate beliefs about the campaign’s effectiveness.” He recommends a halt on public funding and additional 'roll-outs' of the program until its efficacy can be scientifically examined. He further recommends: "Politicians, the media, and prevention researchers also need to ensure that in future they critically evaluate any research released by the MMP, rather than assuming the organization’s press releases (and reports) are presenting data in a fair and balanced way. It is recommended that any future reports documenting the results of MMP’s use and attitudes surveys include complete statistical analyses for every question in the survey. This is because researchers and policymakers making decisions about MMP-style graphic advertising campaigns need access to all evidence, rather than a subset of findings that portray the MMP in a positive light.”

Many in the Montana state legislature hailed the project as an unprecedented success, and moved to fund the previously privately-funded project with tax dollars. The move to provide public funding for the Meth Project was opposed by some legislators and drug prevention and treatment professionals. The opposition points out that the Meth Project's effectiveness is unproven and that research shows that these type of media campaigns are ineffective. For example research "performed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which reported in 2006 that $1.2 billion spent between 1998 and 2004 on the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s anti-drug media campaign was utterly ineffective". The Montana Meth Project was cited by the White House as a "model for the nation." As of 2008, the campaign has expanded to the U.S. states of Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, and Wyoming. However, the Montana Meth Project's own Use and Attitudes Survey noted that meth usage rates among Montana teens have remained stable since the inception of the program: "In 2008, 3% of Montana teens admit to having tried meth, a number that has remained essentially stable since 2005." Yet, this statement is not supported by the data shown in the survey appendices.

Television spots

All 16 television spots were conceived by San Francisco-based advertising agency Venables Bell & Partners. The 2005 and 2006 spots were directed by Tony Kaye, the 2007 spots by Darren Aronofsky, and the 2008 spots by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

2005-2006: Directed by Tony Kaye

Tony Kaye's spots feature themes of meth-addicted teens' moral compromises and regret, and certain teens' false confidence that they can use meth without becoming addicted. Bathtub and Laundromat feature pre-addicted teens encountering future, addicted versions of themselves. Just Once, That Guy and Junkie Den feature teens who promise themselves that they will only try meth "once". Crash and Jumped feature teens who wish that a terrible accident or violent attack would have prevented them from trying meth, since they consider their addiction to be a worse fate. Everything Else shows a girl getting a preview of what will befall her if she tries meth.

Wave I

• Bathtub - A teenage girl in her bathrobe talks on her cell phone while looking into her bathroom mirror. She says, "yeah, my parents think I'm sleeping at your house". She hangs up and gets into the shower. While showering, she looks down and sees a trickle of blood. She turns around and screams; there is a pockmarked, bleeding version of herself shivering at the bottom of the shower, who pleads, "don't do it."
• Laundromat - A deranged, addicted young man runs into a laundromat and demands the money of everyone inside, beating a man to the floor and screaming in the faces of women and children. He then runs to a young man in the corner, grabs him by the collar, and shouts "this wasn't supposed to be your life!" The assailant and his last victim are the same young man.
• Just Once - A teen girl declares that she is only trying meth "once", leading to a sequence of further compromises to support her addiction, including stealing and prostitution, each of which she promises will be "just once." The ad ends with the girl unconscious on her bed in a post-meth haze, while her pre-teen sister steals her meth and whispers, "I'm going to try meth, just once."
• That Guy - A teen boy states "I'm going to try meth just once, I'm not gonna be like that guy." He gestures towards a later version of himself, who deteriorates further, finally ending up shaking and sweating on a drug dealer's makeshift van-seat "couch". A teen girl purchases from the dealer, saying "I'm gonna try meth just once, I'm not gonna be like that guy," indicating the now-wretched boy.

Wave II

• Junkie Den - In a shadowy drug den, a young boy tries meth for the first time. He is congratulated by dirty, drug-addicted people, who describe his future life as "one of us". One woman says that they will "shoot up together", two addicted men say that they and the boy will "steal together... and we'll be sleepin' together, too." The boy's protest that he is only trying it once is met with howls of laughter.
• Crash - A car is driving in the rain at night. The tire explodes, and the car flips over. In narration, the teenage driver wishes that she had crashed on her way to "that party", even if she were to have broken her neck and become paralyzed, because it would have prevented her from trying meth. The girl, now addicted, smokes the drug in a dirty, run-down apartment, in which she says "now this is my life."
• Everything Else - A girl approaches a group of people who are using meth, and requests some for herself. The dealer gives her the drug, as well as "everything else" that comes with it. He aggressively saddles her with an intimidating drug dealer, "meth boyfriends" who rape her, an addicted baby, and in a mirror, he shows her her bleeding "meth face."
• Jumped - A younger teen boy is chased through a parking lot by three older males, who beat him to the ground and kick him. In narration, the boy wishes he had been assaulted that night, because then he would not have tried meth. The worst of the three assailants raises a cinder block high over his head, threatening to drop it on the boy and crush his skull. The camera cuts to a drug den, where the boy, shaking, says "now all I do is meth."

2007: Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Each of the spots directed by Darren Aronofsky features a voice-over spoken by the teen featured in the spot. In voice-over, each teen talks about how strong their relationships are with their friends and family, and how important those relationships are to them. The action on screen demonstrates that if a person becomes addicted to meth, their addiction will destroy even their strongest relationships.

Wave III

• Boyfriend - A teen girl lies on a bed in her underwear, as an older man zips up his pants and walks out the door of the motel room in which the girl lies. In narration, the girl states, "I love my boyfriend, we've been together since like 8th grade. He takes care of me." As the older man exits, he hands something to the girl's boyfriend, who stands outside of the door. The boyfriend enters the room and inspects the bag of meth that the man gave him, as the girl cringes and weeps.
• Mother - A teenage boy raids his mother's purse for money, while in narration, he talks about how much he loves her. When she enters the room and objects to his theft, both dismayed and concerned for her son, he strikes her to the floor. She cries out to him, hanging onto his leg. He kicks free and flees, as she lies sobbing on the floor.
• Friends - From the interior of a car, we see one worried passenger, the reckless driver, and a second worried passenger. A female narrator says that she is "tight with her friends", who "always look out for me". The narrator is revealed to be the fourth person in the car—she is slumped in the backseat—as the car halts in front of a hospital emergency room. The girl's 'friends' pull her unresponsive body out of the car, dump her next to the curb, and speed off.
• Parents - An upset teenage boy approaches his parents' house, knocking on the door, and shouting "I'm sorry, Dad!" In a narration, the boy talks about how he's always been really close with his parents. Inside the house, the parents are panicked and distraught, and turn off the light. The boy kicks the door many times, begging to be let in, screaming that he's going to kill them.

2008: Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Each of the spots by Alejandro González Iñárritu features a teen or teens who appear to be normal and healthy in the beginning of the spot, but who appear pockmarked, bleeding, and addicted at the end, despite the fact that time passes normally. As each teen encounters their downfall—prostitution, robbery, or overdose—a narrator intones the simple phrase: "This isn't normal... but on meth, it is."

Wave IV

• Family - Three smiling, clean-cut teen boys ring the doorbell of a family's house. A mother opens the door, and the boys violently burst into the house: one pins the mother against the wall by her throat, another grabs a vase and smashes it over the father's head. The boys scatter through the house and quickly fill their arms with valuables, one boy shrieks "Hurry up!!", while a female voice-over says, "This isn't normal..." The family's young daughter enters the room, crying for her father who is injured on the floor, and one of the boys stands over her and shouts until she drops to the floor in terror. As the boys flee the house with their arms full of valuables, we see that their formerly clean-cut faces are now gaunt, pockmarked and bleeding, as the voice-over concludes, "... but on meth, it is."

• O.D. - Several clean-cut, smiling teens are sitting on a bed in a clean, sunny, suburban teenager's room, watching a lighthearted show on television. The camera pans to the floor, where one clean-cut teenage boy is gasping, sweating, and convulsing, with his eyes rolled back into his head. The teens on the bed appear not to notice him. The voice-over intones, "This isn't normal..." as the camera pans to a mirror near the floor where the boy lays. The camera passes through the mirror and enters the dim, shadowy "mirror world" as a low, ominous tone overtakes the sound of the television. The camera pans upward past the now-pockmarked face of the seizing boy, rising above the filthy floor to the grimy bed where the group of teens sit, now gaunt and sickly. The teens on the bed take no notice of the overdosing boy, because they too are high on meth. One shaking teen passes a meth pipe to another, while the voice over concludes "... but on meth, it is."

• Sisters - Two clean-cut teen girls approach three men in their 30s drinking beer next to a gas station. The older teen, appearing about 15, hesitantly propositions them: "Hey, guys... you can do anything you want to me, for fifty bucks." There is a pause. One of the men gestures to the younger, middle-school-aged girl, who looks frightened, and the man says, "Well, what about her?" The older teen looks aside, her face blank, and says, "Sure." A female voice-over says, "This isn't normal...", as the man who spoke pushes open the bathroom door. The camera cuts to the interior of the filthy bathroom as they enter. The girls' faces are now pocked and bleeding. The camera pans to the dirty bathroom mirror. We see the reflection of the mute, younger girl, standing terrified in the corner, as the man who requested her removes his coat. The other man reaches up to pull back the older girl's hair, as the voice-over says, "... but on meth, it is."

External links

• Montana Meth Project, Montana site. Newest ads are listed first.
• Meth Project Foundation, national site. Ads are listed from oldest to newest.
• Graphic anti-meth ads catching on; Stateline
• [1], August 3, 2006 - Missoula Independent (MT) Why The Montana Meth Project Isn't All It's Cranked Up To Be