News Photo by Julie Riddle A billboard at the intersection of U.S.-23 and Petersville Road, south of Rogers City, shares a message designed to bolster young women’s self esteem.

ALPENA — Girls are strong. They are valuable. They can can make great choices and be in charge of their futures.

That’s the message that the Huron Undercover Narcotics Team wants to share through a billboard campaign during the month of May in Northeast Michigan counties.

Billboards with encouraging messages aimed at young women have been popping up along area roadways, a reminder that girls have what it takes to navigate a sometimes challenging world.

The premise behind the campaign, HUNT Commander Detective Lt. Stuart Sharp said, is to encourage young women in junior high and high school to value themselves enough that they avoid making choices that will harm them in the future. That includes choices about what to put in their bodies and whom to allow to influence the decisions they make.

The billboard campaign was intentionally launched during prom and graduation season, times when dating is common and the risk of teens being pressured into substance abuse is increased because of the celebratory nature of those events.

The billboards were made possible by a $5,000 federal grant. Sharp partnered with Up North Prevention, a Catholic Human Services initiative dedicated to substance abuse prevention, to create a campaign depicting young women as valuable and resilient. In addition to the billboards, grant money will be used for youth-friendly efforts such as digital media popup advertising targeted to young women.

Tasked with fighting the lethal effects of drug use in Northeast Michigan, HUNT attacks from several fronts. In addition to seeking out and eliminating high-level traffickers bringing dangerous opioids into the region, the task force also works to reduce the factors that lead people to turn to drugs in the first place.

In his work within the community, Sharp has seen a trend of junior high and high school girls becoming victims of abusive family, friend, and romantic relationships. Emotionally vulnerable already because of the changing chemistry of their bodies and brains, adolescents that are victims of abuse are even more likely to experience shattered self-esteem, Sharp said, increasing the chance that they will develop a dependency on drugs as a coping mechanism.

HUNT’s undercover activity has revealed an intentional, though little-known, attack on area girls that deeply concerns Sharp. Young women have become the target of local drug activity in recent years, Sharp said, lured into what they see as a glamorous life by traffickers who bring drugs up from downstate.

The traffickers seek out local young women, especially those who are already made vulnerable by a connection to drugs, and convince the girls to deliver their wares — often carried inside their bodies, Sharp said — letting the traffickers themselves hide in relative safety.

The changing population at the Alpena County Jail reinforces the need to consider the effect of an influx of drug use on the women of the community. When jail administrator Sgt. Scott Gagnon began work 17 years ago, it was usual to have no more than one or two women in the county’s cells. In 2018, he said, the jail housed an average of 12 female inmates on any given day. In the late summer months, the average rose to 20 or 22 females.

Right now, Gagnon said, about 80% of the female inmate population is incarcerated for a crime correlated with drugs.

Girls need to know that they have value, Sharp said, before they decide to put a substance in their bodies or allow themselves to be in an abusive relationship that can lead to an escape into drug use.

Date safe and date smart, the campaign tells them.

Because, as the sign says, “You’re brave, strong, smart, You’re worth it!”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com.