Governor Recognizes Anti-Meth Coalition for Innovative Strategies
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Governor proclaims Nov. 26-30 as Meth Awareness Week
Governor Janet Napolitano recently recognized the Northeast Valley Coalition Against Methamphetamine with an Innovative Strategies Award. The award recognizes the coalition for its unique approach to addressing the impact of meth by scheduling shredding events throughout the Northeast Valley communities. The award singles out the Coalition for addressing the critical need to prevent identity theft, educate community members and reduce the effects of methamphetamine.
Last year, the Coalition conducted an assessment of the meth problem and found that there is a relationship between the increase of methamphetamine use and the increase of identity theft cases. In addition, according the Federal Trade Commission, Arizona leads in the number of identity theft cases per capita. As a result, the Coalition decided to work on educating the community on how to reduce opportunities for meth users to commit ID theft and related crimes.
A strategy developed by the Coalition was to host ID Theft Prevention Shredding Events in each of the Coalition's seven communities. The next event will be Saturday, Oct. 27 from 8 to 11:30 a.m. at the Granite Reef Senior Center, 1700 N. Granite Reef Rd. in Scottsdale. Events are also being planned for Carefree and Cave Creek, Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Fountain Hills, Paradise Valley and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.
Events are free and residents may bring up to four medium-size boxes to have shred on site. The ID Theft Prevention Shredding Events were originally developed by the Scottsdale Police Department and Shred-it Phoenix
and have been increasingly popular with residents. The Coalition decided to expand the concept by hosting events in other communities, and by providing information about the connection between meth and identity theft. A fact sheet on how to reduce ID theft was prepared by the Coalition and is available online.
The award was presented by staff from the Governor's Office for Substance Abuse Policy at the Arizona Substance Abuse Coalition Forum held in Sedona on Sept. 19, 2007.
The Governor has also announced $8.3M for Meth Treatment. More information is available here.