The End Meth Now campaign is the latest initiative in the state's ongoing effort to combat the apparent increasing use of methamphetamine in Utah. A special task force was set up in January 2006 to address the problem in a statewide but local government approach.

To illustrate the point, members of the governor's office and the Utah Association of Counties unveiled the program in St. George on Monday as well.

Along with a true joint effort, a joint recognition that many of the treatment programs are already significantly overcrowded is also needed, Fleming said.

"And treatment is offered traditionally and is covered by insurers as an acute, intense therapy (30 days inpatient, 30 days outpatient) when in fact addiction is a long-term, chronic disease," he said.

Brain chemistry researchers at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center and around the country regard addiction as a brain disease that develops after a person has been exposed to a particular substance. It alters, perhaps irreversibly, the chemistry of the brain so that it won't function normally without it.

The same argument can be made for prescription drugs and legal stimulants such as caffeine, says Glen Hanson, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the U. Many people say they don't feel right or normal without their diet Coke and experience a bad headache without it.

A meth user without it — including those who don't get high or binge — Hanson says, often becomes irritable and belligerent to the point of abuse as well as extremely paranoid and depressed.

More information about the campaign is available at www.endmethnow.org.

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E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com