Guv wants to tweak anti-meth efforts
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. unveils a $10.2 million campaign focusing on prevention and rehab
By Kirsten Stewart
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 01/11/2007 01:01:46 AM MST

Wendy Ahlgren grew up in a middle-class, Mormon family of seven where drugs and alcohol were considered taboo, but rarely discussed. The 47-year-old, who describes herself as "naive," has struggled with depression for as long as she can remember.

For Jodi, flirting with drugs and alcohol was a teenage "rite of passage." Her grandfather was a bootlegger during the Prohibition era, several of her uncles dealt drugs and her father was an alcoholic. They considered it a lifestyle filled with romance, not danger.

The two are among the tens of thousands of Utah women who have fallen victim to methamphetamine over the past decade - many of them young mothers. Both women say they had "no idea" meth would ravage their lives, that their addictions would rob them of their children, jobs and dignity.

"That's the constant refrain" of women seeking help at public treatment clinics, said Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. at a Wednesday unveiling of his $10.2 million anti-meth campaign. The plan focuses on treatment and prevention - a departure from law enforcement-driven strategies of the past.
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