(See sample radio ad at www.shakopeenews.com/node/2020).

By Shannon Fiecke, staff writer

Her children pounded their fists on her door.

"Mommy, we’re hungry, when’s breakfast?" they asked.

Inside, Jenny was on a two-day methamphetamine crash, and couldn’t get out of bed.

That evening, when she finally got up, her kids were still sitting outside her door — hungry.

Jenny, a Scott County mother, tells this story and how she lost custody of her children because of a meth addiction in a pair of radio ads that can be heard on KDWB in coming weeks.

She and another former addict recorded the ads last week, which Scott County is running with six other messages in April, May and June on the top-40 contemporary hit music station, 101.3 FM.

Other ads will tell what ingredients are used to produce meth and include a parent’s perspective on meth, as well as words from Scott County Attorney Pat Ciliberto and Sheriff Kevin Studnicka.

The radio project is the fruit of the Scott County Meth Task Force, a public-private partnership that is raising awareness about the harms of meth use on the community. The task force, which gets funds from vehicles forfeited in narcotic and drunken-driving arrests, is spending $9,000 to run 240 ads over a 12-week period.

Michelle Jungels, a Scott County communications specialist who helped write the radio ads for the task force, said they’re aimed at teens.

"We want to stop the first-time user before they even start," Jungels said.

The ads mention they’re sponsored by the task force and direct listeners to its Web site, chooselifenotmeth.com.

Jungels said the task force’s educational outreach thus far has included presentations at schools, ads on the back of bathroom stalls and booths at events.

To reach more people, the committee decided to try radio. She isn’t aware of any other counties that have tried this.

A Shakopee police detective assigned to the Southwest Metro Drug Task Force said there continues to be a significant amount of meth use in this area.

However, the amount of meth being manufactured locally is down, with only one lab busted last year in the county, said Sheriff Studnicka.

Drug intelligence suggests that 80 percent of meth is now being smuggled in through Mexico, much like cocaine is — the result of stiffer regulations on the sale of certain cold medicine, which can be used in the production of meth, said the Shakopee detective, not identified to protect his anonymity.

The detective said he’s not seen new groups of people using meth, and that it appears to continue to be the same network of people.

He said typical users in this area are white, in their mid-20s to mid-30s and are both male and female.

One of the recovering addicts who speaks on an ad is a young man in his 20s, Jungels said, who has also told his story to community groups. In high school, the man was captain of his football and basketball teams. His mom was a law enforcement officer.

The other former meth user is a woman in her early 30s who lost custody of her first two children for a while due to her addiction, Jungels said.

Pregnancy with her third child was her wake-up call for sobriety.

The woman recently began volunteering with the task force.

"She either wrote or e-mailed us a letter saying she really understands how difficult it is to stay sober from meth," Jungels said. "It’s her goal to help others not want to do this drug."

Studnicka said he listened to the first commercials last week and was very impressed.

"They’re just very informative and to the point, not a drawn-out story," he said. "Just a short message that really gets the point across."

Shannon Fiecke can be reached at (952) 345-6679 or sfiecke@swpub.com.