Event to tell public about methamphetamine perils

Methamphetamine is a growing problem across the country, and Columbia County Community Connections is hoping an upcoming event will inform residents and help curb usage of the drug.

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The CSRA Community Event on Meth Prevention will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the auditorium of the Evans Government Center on Ronald Reagan Drive. It is put on by the Georgia Meth Project, a nonprofit prevention program that implements advertising and community action plans to reduce methamphetamine use in Georgia.

The event is free and open to the public.

Julie Miller, the executive director of Community Connections, said she is bombarded by news of busts of methamphetamine labs.

"If that is happening, then there must be people using it," Miller said. "Everything I've read about the drug, it has really ugly consequences. They happen very quickly."

The Meth Project recently launched a program to prevent teens from trying methamphetamine, even one time.

Jim Langford, the executive director of the Georgia Meth Project, will speak at the event.

"The thing that concerns me is about young people especially," Miller said. "They can take a risk and think that, 'It is not going to hurt me.' The I'll-try-anything-once kind of thing. Apparently, with this drug, it is not a very good risk to take. You may be risking your life with even one time."

The event will promote community awareness about the drug, its costs and consequences.

Miller hopes residents will bring their children and that area law enforcement officials and lawmakers also will attend.

The program will focus on what communities can do to address methamphetamine use locally.

Miller requests that those wishing to attend call the Community Connections office at (706) 556-0609.