It doesn't really get to the heart of the matter, which is both the users and those trying to stop them by locking them up are making a mistake, she said. "You'll feel better for a little while but not for long. People think that if you just give up the drugs your life will magically get better. It doesn't. It gets harder by about 300 percent."

Everyone she knows who is using wants help, and most even hate themselves for not just stopping, she said. Experts blame a lot of factors for why — genetics and drug-induced brain damage — that keeps sending out the need for more. Salt Lake County and state substance abuse prevention regularly report that two-thirds of users want to stop, but treatment capacity can handle barely a third of that.

"The big thing I think is there is such shame and guilt that is part of the whole problem that people won't ask," Rhynsburgersaid. "And they see themselves getting worse and that just makes them more ashamed to ask."

To her, the best possible outcome for any anti-drug use effort would be a change in the public's attitude toward the problem similar to the way people changed how they look at child abuse.

"We used to not talk about that at all, and because we started to, a lot of good has been done," she said. "My hope is that maybe this campaign and my talking about my own drug use will maybe help that happen."

For more information or help, visit endmethnow.com.

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E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com