Getting kids not to try a drug like meth, with all its negative stereotypes, doesn’t seem like a hard sell.
After all, most people think of the drug as a deadly, teeth-rotting substance that causes instant addiction and leads its users to pick at scabby skin and stay up for days on end.
But according to recent data, more than one-third of Georgia teens still think the drug is OK to try once and roughly another quarter see nothing wrong with regular use.
So the challenge for the group behind the eye-popping TV and billboard ads that plead with teens never to try meth “not even once” is to make meth the most unappealing illegal drug around, group founders say.
“The point is to un-sell meth,” said Jim Langford, the Georgia Meth Project’s executive director. “We want to make the meth lifestyle something that is unattractive to young people while educating them about the risks.”