KDHE Partnership with Rice County Meth Task Force
Informs 14,000 about Meth

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Meth Watch Program has become involved in an initiative called the Kansas Methamphetamine Prevention Project. The Project provides methamphetamine awareness and prevention training and information throughout the 105 counties in the state. Several regional workshops have already been conducted to develop community teams to address the meth issues in local areas. Forty-six small grants for local meth prevention efforts have been awarded to local groups to assist communities in starting anti-meth programs. The federal Department of Health and Human Resources provided money for these grants to the Project.

One group, the Rice County Meth Task Force, enlisted help from six banks in the county. Each bank agreed to send an insert concerning meth in the statement envelopes to all of their customers. As a result of this cooperative effort, the Task Force reached 14,000 bank customers in 10 counties with beneficial information about the problems and dangers of meth labs and how each person can help reduce meth usage.

The Rice County Meth Task Force Partner Banks include, Alden State Bank (Sterling Branch), Citizens State Bank, Farmers National Bank (Bushton Branch), First Bank (Sterling Branch, Lyons Branch, and Chase Branch), Lyons Federal Savings, and Lyons State Bank (Little River Branch and Lindsborg Branch). Through the participation of these businesses, KDHE and the local task force gained a large multiplier in their efforts in getting the word out about the meth problem in Kansas.

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