First lady makes pitch for Millennium Funds for Idaho Meth Project
First Lady Lori Otter made two presentations to lawmakers on the Joint Millennium Fund Committee today, one as board president and interim executive director off the Idaho Meth Project, and the other as the head of “Truth 208,” a related project that seeks to prevent abuse of prescription drugs. The Meth Project is seeking a $649,900 grant from Idaho’s Millennium Fund, an endowment set up with the state’s proceeds from a nationwide tobacco settlement, next year; Truth 208 is seeking $495,300.
“We are a statewide prevention program that is a free in-school lesson program that provides the message ‘Not even once’ on methamphetamine use,” Otter told the legislative panel. “Methamphetamine has about a 95 percent addiction rate on first-time use,” making this “a very, very serious message to get across to teens,” she said. The Meth Project, which sends out materials in Spanish as well as English, is celebrating its 10th year this year. It has three employees; seven part-time, contracted regional coordinators; and a teen advisory council.
“Idaho has remained below the national average for meth use, except for the year 2007, which is the year we started,” Otter told the lawmakers. “So we’re making progress. … We have trended downward every year since the project started.”
The Truth 208 program was added in 2015. Last year, the two programs together received $495,600 from the Millennium Fund. This year, they’re among more than 20 programs vying for a share of Millennium Fund earnings next year, ranging from ISP tobacco compliance checks to the Academy of Family Physicians’ Tar Wars program to substance abuse treatment programs of the Idaho Department of Correction.
This year’s distributions totaled $9.6 million; another $2.9 million went undistributed.