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DAN GUNDERSON: Tyler is 17. He's thin with neatly-trimmed blond hair and a choirboy face. He grew up in a middle-class family in the small town of Pelican Rapids. About a year ago, he was at a party drinking beer and smoking pot. His friends pushed him to try meth.

TYLER: If you're going to be with us, you got to do meth. And that's what I was thinking. That's the way I could be cool with them. And I was pressured for about two hours to do it because I promised myself, I promised my family, I promised my brother, I promised a lot of people that I'd never do it. And I did it.

When I took the hit, it just felt so great. My body was feeling good. And it just felt so good that I told myself I'm never going to quit this.

DAN GUNDERSON: Tyler says he started smoking meth a couple times a week, then every day, then two or three times a day. In six months, he lost 50 pounds. His skin turned yellow.

Tyler says, meth consumed him. If he wasn't using meth, he was thinking about the drug. He wore makeup to cover the purple circles under his eyes. He developed a hair-trigger temper, once smashing out all the windows of a friend's car over a $10 debt.

He remembers driving around at night randomly firing a rifle out the window. He was convinced the FBI was following him. But he felt invincible.

TYLER: You'd feel so powerful. I thought, when I wore sunglasses, no one could see me. After being awake for about two weeks, I didn't think anyone could see me. Walked right by a cop 4:00 in the morning, sunglasses on, started talking to me. I just walked away. Didn't even think he saw me.

DAN GUNDERSON: Tyler was arrested and sent to a drug treatment program. He just got out of a halfway house. He's moved back home. And he's trying to avoid his old friends.

TYLER: I have to separate from every one of my friends. And it was difficult because I had a friend ever since I was in kindergarten. And he's still using, and I can't hang around with him because the fact is, I'm going to use if I do.

DAN GUNDERSON: Last summer is mostly a blank for Tyler. This summer, he's working two jobs and trying to catch up on schoolwork. He wants to graduate next year, but he feels like he's lost part of his brain.

TYLER: I have no short-term memory. And my brain, I don't know what's wrong with it. I've never been the same ever since I used meth. I used to be an A student. Now, I try my hardest, and I'm a C student at an alternative school.

DAN GUNDERSON: Some researchers say methamphetamine causes permanent chemical changes in the brain. Tyler's brain may never recover from the damage done by meth.

There are dozens of stories like Tyler's in Otter Tail County. They motivate Sheriff Brian Schleuter to speak to students at every opportunity.

BRIAN SCHLUETER: I'm going to turn the lights out. Nobody go to sleep though, OK?

DAN GUNDERSON: Today, Sheriff Schleuter gives his PowerPoint presentation to about 40 high school students in Fergus Falls. He is the drug prevention program here.

He talks briefly about alcohol. It's by far the most commonly abused drug among students. But his focus is the drug that frightens this veteran cop-- meth. He doesn't mince words. He tells them he knows meth is in this school. Maybe some of them even use it.

He says, a student here was recently caught brewing a batch of meth in his backpack. He says, guys who use meth will end up dealing drugs or stealing to support their habit. Girls, he says, will turn to sex for drugs.

BRIAN SCHLUETER: I can think of one girl from our county. She was basically a straight A student as a junior. She got into this type of stuff. And now she's out living in a shacky old house with a bunch of 50-year-old drug dealers. It's just pathetic.

DAN GUNDERSON: Sheriff Schleuter tells the students, if they choose to use meth, they'll end up in jail, drug treatment, or dead. He tells them, it's up to them to take a stand against meth. As the students file out of the classroom and the sheriff packs up his laptop computer, he shakes his head and wonders aloud if he's getting through to these kids.

BRIAN SCHLUETER: Some are looking around and talking. Some have their eyes closed. And you wonder if anything's doing any good sometimes. But I think they are hearing, and I think it gets the thought process going. So whether it's wide-sweeping good, I don't know. I hope so.

DAN GUNDERSON: The sheriff says, he simply had to do something. He says, drug prevention efforts in school are a miserable failure.

BRIAN SCHLUETER: In the past, we'd teach DARE in the fifth grade, and say, you're good to go now. And obviously, that hasn't worked, and it's a formula for failure. If that's all you're going to do-- I'm not saying that DARE was bad, but you have to do more than that.

DAN GUNDERSON: The sheriff thinks many schools are behind the curve on the meth problem. He says, many school administrators and parents are in denial. There's no statewide drug prevention effort in Minnesota. It's up to individual schools to decide if they need a prevention program.

As he leaves the school, the sheriff stops to chat with Principal Greg Winter. Winter says his school is not ignoring meth. He says, schools have relatively little money for prevention programs, but he expects to stay ahead of the problem.

GREG WINTER: As far as the high school here, I don't think we're any worse off or any better off than the other schools. I think we do have the minor activity. With all the education we have out there, we're hoping to keep it to a minimum.

DAN GUNDERSON: A Fergus Falls high school student we'll call Melissa says, meth is fast becoming the student's drug of choice. She says, it's easier to get than alcohol. Melissa grew up in what she calls an all-American family. Her dad is a successful businessman. She got mostly As in school. Last summer, she started using meth. She took the habit with her back to school last fall.

SPEAKER: I bought drugs in school. It's two slaps of the hands. You slap someone's hand and give them the money, and they slap your hand and give you the drug. Just looks like some goofy handshake that you do. The teachers-- I mean, they could be right in front of you, and it doesn't matter because no one pays attention.

DAN GUNDERSON: There's no up-to-date scientific survey of meth use in this school or any other. Principal Greg Winter says, if there's meth use, it's minimal-- a handful of students. Law enforcement officials don't. Chemical dependency counselors say, they don't know.

Melissa says one in five students in her school use meth. She says, the users include athletes and honor students.

SPEAKER: It's not just your typical pot smoking loser that skips school and goes and does drugs. It's everyone.

DAN GUNDERSON: Melissa says, she maintained good grades while she was using meth. Her parents and teachers had no idea she was going to school high every day. This winter, the paranoia and hallucinations began to scare her. She quit on her own and joined a local Narcotics Anonymous group for support. Melissa says, she's been clean four months. But she craves meth every day.

SPEAKER: Because the drug's your best friend, and you have to say goodbye to that. And it's hard thing to do to say goodbye to any of your closest friends.

DAN GUNDERSON: Melissa says, meth became her friend because she felt like an outsider at school.

SPEAKER: I've never been popular. I've never been the most beautiful girl in school. I've never been in that group that's so looked up to by the rest of the school. So I thought, well, then I'll just use drugs because I don't matter anyways.

DAN GUNDERSON: The 17-year-old says, she now has a purpose in life. She's volunteering with a local organization that takes meth addicts into schools to tell their stories. Melissa says, prevention programs in the schools had no effect on her or her friends. So what do kids think is the most effective prevention? Melissa and a half dozen other students all gave the same answer-- random drug testing.

SPEAKER: Because that's an awesome excuse to tell someone, well, I can't do this because I get random drug tests from my parents. And I'll be in huge trouble if I have any drugs in my system.

DAN GUNDERSON: Experts say, prevention is the key to slowing the spread of meth in schools. But as one state official put it, it's hard to think about prevention when you're trying to stop the bleeding. Dan Gundersen, Minnesota Public Radio, Moorhead.