By Shaun Davies
ninemsn
A new national drug campaign could feature graphic anti-methamphetamine messages, similar to ads used in the US state of Montana.
Authorities in Montana say their confronting ads against the drug crystal methamphetamine, also known as ice, have slashed usage rates and changed perceptions of the drug among teenagers.
Gino Vumbaca, executive officer of the Australian National Council on Drugs, said a new Australian advertising campaign could feature a similar approach, although researchers were still determining the exact content.
He said any graphic anti-drug ads would be grounded in fact, "not perception or myth".
"We focus test all the ideas with the target group," Mr Vumbaca said.
"What we think will work doesn't necessarily translate for the people who take the drugs."
Montana's attorney general, Mike McGrath, has credited the ads with cutting meth-related crime in Montana by around 53 percent.
The Montana survey also found meth use among teens in the state had dropped 38 percent, with 87 percent of teens saying peers who tried the drug would face disapproval.
But Mr Vumbaca was sceptical of such grand claims and said a variety of factors played a role in reducing drug use.
"I haven't seen the research so I'm not going to say that it's flawed," Mr Vumbaca said.
"But it's difficult for any campaign to claim that.
"For instance, with the reduction of heroin overdoses in Australia, there was a whole combination of factors."
An additional challenge for the researchers was working out which messages and sources young people young people would treat as credible.
"We're able to define different subcultures and groups. You try and work out who and what certain groups have a higher susceptibility to drug use and drug-use problems," Mr Vumbaca said.
"I think (young people) are a lot more discerning. They have a variety of sources they can get information from."
Other Australian drug experts are divided over whether to embrace a graphic Montana-style campaign.
Professor Bob Batey, a specialist in drug use who works at Bankstown Hospital, cautiously welcomed the idea of a graphic anti-drugs campaign in Australia.
He said disturbing advertisements could deter users and pointed to a smaller-scale campaign aimed at clubbers in NSW.
"I think we certainly need more objective information out there for the community. I think if (these ads) are done dramatically then they need to have some factual underpinning," Professor Batey said.
But Centre for Youth Drug Studies director Dr Jane Mallick said graphic campaigns tended only to be effective for a short amount of time and could be counter productive.
"When people start being exposed to drugs in their peer groups, what happens is when young people are at a party and they see people on ecstasy having a good time . . . then they won't take on any authority's message about these things," Dr Mallick said.
A spokesman for newly appointed Aging Minister Chris Pyne, who until recently was Assistant Health Minister, said the Federal Government had set money aside for a graphic anti-drugs campaign.
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