Navajo County Coalition Breaks Through Stigma to Curb Methamphetamine Abuse

For coalition leaders in Navajo County, Ariz.—where methamphetamine abuse is the number one problem—the toughest challenge was not only keeping more youth from joining the ranks of meth users, it was getting the community to accept that it had a problem.

The statistics speak for themselves. Among Arizona counties, Navajo County ranks as the highest in methamphetamine use among 12th graders; and the second highest among 8th and 10th graders. In addition, 90 percent of Navajo County inmates are charged with meth-related crimes; and 62 percent of DUI arrests in the county are meth-related.

However, when the Navajo County Coalition Against Drug Abuse began trying to address the problem three years ago few people would even talk about the issue. This was due largely to the dynamic make-up of the county, where 48 percent of the population is Native American, 8 percent is Hispanic and many hold strong religious beliefs where talking openly about problems is frowned upon.

“For us, it was all about breaking through the stigmas and stereotypes in the community. Many families didn’t see it as their problem and in communities like the large Mormon community, this was not something they were open to discussing,” explained Debe Campbell, Director of the Navajo County Coalition Against Drug Abuse.

Campbell noted that it also didn’t help that methamphetamine remains legal on some Native American reservations, such as the Hopi Reservation. The Navajo Nation Council only made the drug illegal in February 2005.

To break down some of the community barriers, the group held town halls and community forums across the county, featuring people in recovery from the local area, and are running public service announcements highlighting local stories of recovery on major county radio stations, cable television and theater screens. “By doing this, people began to realize that it was not about ‘those people talking to us about their problem,’ it was about ‘people talking to us about our problem,’” Campbell explained. “They could see how it was impacting their own communities.”

The group also conducted in-service training for teachers throughout the school district and interactive forums with students. For many of the kids who participated in the forums, it was evident that methamphetamine was nothing new to them. “It struck a nerve with some of them because they recognized what was happening in their own households,” Campbell noted. “Some kids left in tears.” These sessions were coupled with a two-week summer program designed to help at-risk youth develop their self-esteem and better deal with anger and anxiety.

The group is now developing a curriculum that it hopes to implement in the schools next year, and is holding parent-student sessions in the evening to get parents involved in the conversation.

“It’s amazing that we’ve seen a complete turnaround in the community. Just by bringing it out of the closet and on to the table, people now see methamphetamine use as everybody’s problem,” Campbell said.

Navajo County is one of 10 counties participating in Arizona’s Methamphetamine Project, designed to address the state’s growing methamphetamine problem. According to the 2006 Arizona Youth Survey, more than 3,000 Arizona middle- and high-school students reported using meth at least once in the past 30 days. The issue is among the state’s top priorities.

For more information on the Arizona Meth Project, visit www.arizonamethproject.org.