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Targets Crystal Meth Addiction in New $11 Million Campaign

California
Targets Crystal Meth Addiction in New $11 Million Campaign

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Drug officials in California launched an $11 million campaign on Thursday to dissuade gay men from using methamphetamine, otherwise known as crystal, because of its connection to unsafe sex and the transmission of HIV.

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Drug officials in California launched an $11 million campaign on Thursday to dissuade gay men from using methamphetamine, otherwise known as crystal, because of its connection to unsafe sex and the transmission of HIV, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times.

The result of the state legislature's 2006 California Methamphetamine Initiative, the campaign includes billboards, bus wraps, cable TV advertisements, and menotmeth.org, a website where videos of real people show the dire consequences of using the drug.

Mike Rizzo, manager of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, praised the campaign, telling the Times that it depicted meth use in a way "that is real and relatable and not easily dismissed as being overly alarmist."

A state-sponsored survey of 549 men in the state found that 55% of gay and bisexual men had used the drug, compared with 5% of the general population. In 2004 the Gay and Lesbian Center, which helped push the legislation, stated that almost one in every three men who tested positive for HIV had used meth -- three times the number in 2001. (The Advocate)

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