Methamphetamines focus of research report and Research Overview

Alaska Meth Education Project: Process and Outcome Evaluation, 2009 by Dr. Marny Rivera and Jennifer McMullen of UAA's Justice Center, is the first report to provide information regarding Alaskans' perceptions of meth, including effects and risks associated with meth use and perceptions regarding the availability and use of meth by young adults in Alaska. The report evaluated the efforts of the Alaska Meth Education (AME) Project, a statewide effort to reduce meth use and availability in Alaska by educating Alaskans about, and preventing youth from trying, meth.

The AME Project provides free community education presentations, an anti-meth media campaign, anti-meth summits, and a Web site and Facebook page, which provide information, local resources and links to the campaign ads. The AME Project has resulted from the efforts of five local governments: the Municipality of Anchorage, Matanuska Susitna Borough, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Fairbanks North Star Borough and the City and Borough of Juneau.

Evaluation methods included a survey to evaluate community education presentations, a survey conducted with UAA Justice students exposed to the anti-meth radio advertisements generated by the AME Project, a survey of 10,000 randomly sampled Alaskans and a process evaluation involving interviews conducted with AME Project statewide advisory committee members.

Meth is also the focus of a new issue of the Justice Center Research Overview, also written by Marny Rivera and Jennifer McMullen - "Methamphetamine (Meth) Use, Trafficking, and Treatment" - which presents a summary of the meth problem in the U.S. and Alaska using the most recent available data on use, trafficking and treatment related to methamphetamines.