Looks Like Candy, Devastates Like Hard Drugs

March 29, 2007 — -- For the cigarette companies, it was Joe Camel. Now, methamphetamine manufacturers are accused of borrowing a similar tactic -- using cartoon characters and candy flavors to lure teen users.

Chocolate, peanut butter and strawberry? They're not just ice cream flavors, they are the new taste of meth, the latest way dealers and manufacturers are packaging their goods in an ever-changing drug economy.

Gina Attaguile, 27, knows the devastating effects of crystal meth. She started using the drug at 16, when she was living in Las Vegas and working as a prostitute to support her habit. Her casual drug use quickly turned to addiction.

"It was euphoric. I would do a line, and it was a rush. I had all this energy," said Attaguile, now sober and a drug counselor to teens. "It was overwhelming. It felt so right like I was supposed to do it."

Soon Attaguile started making her own meth, a highly addictive stimulant usually in the form of crystalline powder that is either smoked or snorted. She also experimented with colors and flavors that made the drug more appealing and desirable.

"When you're smoking popcorn dope, it tastes like butter, the smurf dope is blue, the peanut butter dope definitely takes like peanut butter when you take a hit," said Attaguile.

This new trend is troubling lawmakers, who are working to prevent teenage drug use. Carson City Undersheriff Steve Albertson said crystal meth has been a major problem in Nevada for at least 15 years, but he's never seen anything like the new marketing gimmicks.

"Sometimes on the packaging you see little cartoon characters," he said. "Drug dealers and clandestine labs give the meth names like strawberry quick, peanut butter meth, blue ribbon, even chocolate meth."

Albertson believes that drug outreach efforts in local schools have been so effective that the drug manufacturers are using these new techniques to target a younger audience. According to an annual survey by the University of Michigan, teen drug use is down 23 percent nationwide over the last five years and teen meth use is down even more sharply.

The number of people 12 and older who used methamphetamine for the first time in the previous year decreased from 318,000 people in 2004 to 192,000 in 2005, according to a national survey on drug use by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.