During a campaign stop in Ames Saturday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Ross Lightfoot outlined a four-part plan for dealing with the spread of methamphetamines.

“We’re going to put a stop to the meth problem,” said Lightfoot, speaking at a dinner party held at the home of Ahmed Merchant, 2130 McCarthy Road.

The former U.S. representative told the crowd of about 80 people that prevention, interdiction, enforcement and treatment are necessary to halt the flood of meth dealers, labs and addicts into Iowa.

Through prevention, he said, parents can be made more aware of the symptoms of meth use. “Most of us as parents are pretty gullible,” he said.

Lightfoot described the second step, interdiction, as “stopping the stuff from coming into the state to begin with.”

Lightfoot aide Craig Schoenfeld said the members of the Outdoor Advertising Association have volunteered to sponsor billboards warning of the dangers of meth and the penalties for its distribution and use.

“We are establishing this as a priority,” Schoenfeld said. “It’s going to take some money to do that, and we’re committed to do that as well.”

The process of enforcement likely will be the most expensive facet of meth containment.

Lightfoot said he will hire 12 more law enforcement officers, establish three more canine units and add 10 prosecutors in the state attorney general’s office.

He also plans to create two more mobile anti-meth lab vans. These new units would join one already in use to clean up toxic meth manufacturing sites across the state.

Neither Lightfoot nor Schoenfeld gave specific measures that would be employed in the treatment phase of the plan.

On the election front, polls continue to show Lightfoot as having a big lead over Democratic opponent Tom Vilsack, but the Lightfoot campaign isn’t coasting to the finish line. Schoenfeld said a priority now is getting traditional Republican voters to go to the polls on Election Day.

“That’s key, getting our supporters out,” he said. “We don’t take anything for granted. The only poll that counts is the votes on Election Day.”

Gary Titus, a Roland resident running for the Story County Board of Supervisors, said he plans to vote for Lightfoot.

“To me, Jim is a very open-minded individual. I like his judgment,” Titus said. “I see Jim representing the values that Iowans have, and I don’t see that in Mr. Vilsack.”