This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 31, 2009 - Gil Kerlikowske, the White House's "anti-drug czar" and director of the National Drug Control Policy, is slated to join a number of state and local politicians and law-enforcement officials at St. Louis City Hall on Tuesday to unveil a new national effort against methamphetamine production.
Missouri has long been one of the top states for production of the illegal drug, and currently ranks first in the nation for "meth lab seizures and incidents," as reported by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.
As a result, it's not surprising that Missouri is among the 16 states to be targeted with a new national anti-drug media campaign that officials say will range from TV and radio ads to print, Web, billboards and gas-pump toppers.
With the exception of Alaska, the other targeted states are generally in the Midwest and West. The are : Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming.
The ads are to run from September through November.
Scheduled to join Kerlikowske at Tuesday morning's event are:
- U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis;
- St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay;
- Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster;
- Judge Phillip Britt, Drug Court commissioner, Missouri's 35th Judicial Circuit;
- Col. James Keathley, superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
