The Woodstock Jaycees are beginning a new program to raise awareness in the community about the dangers of methamphetamine.

The Jaycees Against Meth (JAM) program is the organization's signature project for the year, but also likely will become a permanent, ongoing project, Community Development Vice President Stacy Walls said.

"Our goal is to educate our community about meth, and work together to stop it," she said. "We want to understand all aspects of this drug, as well as its effect on our world, from the schools to the workplace to the family."

The Jaycees themselves are in the process of learning more about meth, and its effect on users and the community. As the organization learns more about the drug and how it devastates lives, more programs will be planned to increase public awareness, she said.

To start raising awareness about the drug, the Jaycees will present a free program Thursday night at their clubhouse with guest speaker Cherokee Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad Agent John New.

"We realize that this is not a pleasant subject to deal with, but we must educate everyone in the community on the dangers involved with meth," Woodstock Jaycees President Natalie Norman said. "Methamphetamine use is on the rise, and the drug hurts everyone who comes in contact with it."

As a CMANS agent, New has supervised numerous meth-related arrests in Cherokee, but adds that is only part of the solution.

"It is important to try and get the people making the drug off the street, but just putting users in jail isn't going to solve the problem," he said. "We need to raise awareness about how dangerous and destructive the drug is."

According to New, while the number of "mom and pop" meth labs in Cherokee is decreasing, the number of meth users is slowly continuing to rise, due in part to more meth being imported from Mexico.

"It's becoming too much trouble to make a very small amount of meth, when it's so readily available in areas around Atlanta," he said. "There doesn't appear to be any shortage either of the drug, or the people who want it."

New said, while the largest percentage of meth users are Caucasians, African-Americans, Asians and Hispanics also are beginning to sample the drug, which provides a longer-lasting high than more expensive drugs like cocaine.

"This drug is not a respecter of persons," New said. "It used to be rare to find minorities or upper class people using this drug, but now, people from all social classes, races and ages are taking meth."

In addition to inviting New to speak, the Jaycees are planning a program with Lynn Lenton of Woodstock, president of the Cherokee chapter of Mothers against Methamphetamines. She will talk about how family members often make drug use possible, and how to help loved ones addicted to the drug.

"A lot of times, people enable meth use by burying their heads in the sand," Ms. Walls said. "They don't understand the magnitude of the problem, and often they don't know how to deal with it, so they do nothing."

Another idea the Jaycees are considering is establishing a support group for former and recovering meth addicts in Cherokee.

"It seems like we're getting to be an epidemic around here with meth," Woodstock Jaycees Chief of Staff J.R. Clark said. "Everybody knows somebody who knows of someone using it, and we're trying to get the word out to anyone who'll listen about the dangers of using the stuff."

Having seen both a brother and a close friend suffer from meth addiction, Clark said it is one of his goals to understand more about the meth.

"In order to try and put a stop to this problem, we first need to understand more about it and how it works," he said.

Other Jaycees groups have expressed an interest in the program, Ms. Walls said, including some from Fulton and Cobb counties and even Macon.

"JAM is a local meth awareness project, but we would like to see the program expand into other communities throughout the state," Ms. Walls said. "Ultimately, we'd like to see this program on a national level, with Jaycees throughout the country taking part in it.

"This is not something that the Jaycees can do alone," she added. "We need all of the community to help us if we're going to stop this epidemic."