Faces of Meth
I think every high school student in the country should visit Faces of Meth.
This project began when a deputy in the Corrections Division Classification Unit, Deputy Bret King, put together mug shots of persons booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center. Deputy King worked with his co-workers in the Classification Unit to identify people who had been in custody more than once. He then worked to verify criminal records and files to determine and assure a history of methamphetamine related use. Deputy King also started interviewing people in custody to learn of their drug use, experiences with methamphetamine, how or if methamphetamine contributed to their criminality, and asked what they would tell young people about methamphetamine.
What Deputy King set out to do was create a realistic presentation about methamphetamine. He didn’t want to create something that made people curious about a drug nor that was a scared straight program. The idea was simple, be honest with kids, let them hear directly from the inmates, and show them what people who work on the front lines – whether it be a Corrections Deputy in the Jail, a Police Officer on the streets or a Public Health Nurse in a clinic see methamphetamine doing to people and to our communities.
The efforts of this project were first published in the Oregonian as part of their focused efforts on the methamphetamine epidemic www.oregonlive.com. The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office has provided the pictures posted in the Oregonian Faces of Meth™ story on December 28, 2004 to others who are involved in methamphetamine prevention and awareness efforts.
These pictures are very frightening. It is incredible what this terrible drug can do to those who fall victim to its effects. Hopefully projects like this one will help young adults take a second thought before “trying” meth.
Update:This posting has been one of the most popular postings on this site. It continues to get about 12,000 page views a month, which for my site, is pretty significant.
I recently happened across this video on UkiahValley.TV which was created by our local county sheriff to support a program of providing free drug testing kits for parents. The video includes both background information about meth, as well as testimonials from those whose lives have been impacted by this terrible drug. The video seems like a pretty good resource to help people understand the damage meth can do.
Hopefully, the video will be helpful.
Another Update:
As part of the program from our local Sheriff described above, they have implemented a really interesting technology aspect. To allow youth to see what they might look like after several years of meth use, the “Face 2 Face” system was developed.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, in partnership with the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians, has created a Methamp- hetamine Awareness Program for Mendocino County. The two agencies were awarded a grant through the U.S. Department of Justice to combat methamphetamine related issues county wide. Sheriff Tom Allman approached software developer Abalone LLC of Moss Beach, California with a request to develop a 3D software that can show the devastating effects of meth on a person’s face. The result is Face2Face, which has been in operation since early 2009. To date Face2Face has been adapted by Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department (California), Santa Cruz County (California), Mobile County Sheriff’s Department (Alabama), US Air Force (Okinawa, Japan), DEA Demand Reduction Units in El Paso (Texas) and Los Angeles, Orange County Sheriff’s Office (California), with several other agencies awaiting training and delivery.
More information about the software is available here.
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