Anti-drug group plans incentive campaign for students

Story published at magicvalley.com on Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Last modified on Tuesday, September 4, 2007 3:07 PM MDT
Anti-drug group plans incentive campaign for students
By Nate Poppino
Times-News writer
TWIN FALLS – Pledges and media campaigns haven’t always worked.

But Pattie Hansen is hoping the power of capitalism will be enough to keep southern Idaho students off of methamphetamine.

Hansen, the executive director of United Way South Central Idaho, is wearing two hats these days. As the chair of the youth committee for Southern Idaho Partners Against Drugs, she’s helping construct an ambitious incentive program meant to keep students of all ages off of methamphetamine.

The goal, organizers say, is to reward students who stay off drugs, not punish those who try them.

“We don’t think punitive works very well with kids,” said John Hathaway, the Region 5 director for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and an adviser for SIPAD.

Under the plan, students – high-school students at first, expanding to middle-school and elementary schools in subsequent years – would voluntarily sign a pledge at the beginning of the school year to not use drugs. Those students would be randomly tested throughout the year in a program similar to what some districts have in place for testing athletes and others who participate in extracurricular events.

Students who test clean will have their names added to a list for random drawings, and could win everything from iPods to a brand-new car. Those who test positive for drugs will be referred for counseling, and their parents and school will be informed.

Students already randomly tested could still participate in the drawings, Hansen said, and SIPAD is hanging all its hopes for the program on the lure of the prizes. The ultimate focus, should the program work, will be on students in grades four through six – a time when habits that lead to drug use are formed, Hansen said.

“If they can just say no for that long, then it’s so much easier for them,” Hansen said.

Organizers hope to launch the program in October and time it with a visit from Dr. Mary F. Holley, the founder of Mothers Against Meth-Amphetamine. But first, they have to figure out how to fund it – especially the drug tests, the prices of which Hathaway said vary widely. He said the group plans to approach Kiwanis and Rotary clubs in the region and local businesses for help.

College of Southern Idaho spokesman Doug Maughan said Wednesday the college would likely support the program in some way, and the Minidoka County School District has donated a former driver’s education car for use as a prize.

Friday, state Rep. Sharon Block, R-Twin Falls, said she thinks the project will benefit more than just school districts. Drugs were a factor in the convictions of as many as 85 percent of people in Idaho prisons, she said, and 70 to 80 percent of children in foster care are there because their parents were drug users.

“It’s a huge burden on our state,” Block said of the prison population.

SIPAD doesn’t know how well the program will work, Hathaway said. But a study is already planned for after the first year of operation, and organizers are optimistic – after all, he said, everyone who has a job relies on some sort of incentive. Success could just mean the program avoids the fate of previous anti-drug efforts, he said: “A lot of hoopla, a lot of rah-rah and then nothing.”

Nate Poppino can be reached at 735-3237 or npoppino@magicvalley.com.