Demand for meth treatment is down, but anti-meth billboards are still up

Anti-meth billboard. Photo: Matt Ides, TCSP

Good news: Demand for help to get off meth is down by half in the Twin Cities. And that indicates lower meth use, according to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Minnesota Public Radio reports. The proportion of meth-related admissions to metro treatment programs — 6 percent — was twice what it was two years ago, and teens comprise a mere 1 percent, down from 18 percent five years ago. Is it time to call this anti-meth public health campaign (above) a success and rid urban neighborhoods of these grisly billboards? Twin Cities Streets for People says it encourages disinventment in struggling areas such as St. Paul’s Frogtown.  

From the tcstreetsforpeople.org blog (where the photo above is captioned “new billboard sign at Como Avenue and Rice Street in St. Paul”):

There is nothing better than a billboard sign to keep people out of a neighborhood. This billboard in Frogtown sends a clear message to anyone passing through: meth addicts live here. Extreme you may think, but it really does send a message that this is a place you don’t want to be. To make things even better, the burnt out auto repair place makes a nice backdrop to the billboard. Moderate and low income communities are usually the ones that get this sort of treatment.

(St. Paul has been the site of a long-running struggle over its many billboards.) 

The billboard’s before-and-after photos of a meth addict come from the Faces of Meth project of the Multnomah Co. (Ore.) Sheriff’s Office, which also offers a free downloadable poster. It’s a descendant of the American Cancer Society’s popular “Smoking is Very Glamorous” poster from decades ago.