Some Out of State Money We Can Applaud

Recently, Montana has been hit with some out-of-state assholes that decided to move in and bitch about the locals, file lawsuits, and generally insult us and act like rich jerks.

Happily, today I'd like to give kudos to a wealthy Montana transplant that is donating $5.6 million dollars to launch an ad campaign to try to keep Montana teens from using meth. Over the past few years, I think we have really started to notice the explosion of meth use in our state. And I don't think we've yet begun to tackle the problem in a way that makes sense and could actually help people get off the drugs or better yet, keep them from starting. I know we all love the Baucus commercial of him running around in black shorts, but I think there's room for more effective messages.

To date, Siebel said, the most common response to the meth epidemic has been to lengthen mandatory prison sentences for drug crimes.

"It seems to me you could double the prison population and it wouldn't have any effect on the problem," he said.

Amen, Mr. Siebel.

Siebel states this is going to be a kind of pilot project, since Montana has a small population and its ad buys are comparatively inexpensive, they will be able to reach most of their target population and hopefully have a large amount of impact. I'm interested in seeing how this project works, and hoping that it spurs a response that is stronger than increased prison sentences and Max Baucus in running shorts to what is a very real and destructive problem in our state.