Meridith Spencer, over at The Crime Map, recently wrote a great post about a program that is helping make the effects of using meth very real for teens and young adults. The program is called Face2Face, and it takes images of young people and “ages” them to show them what they will look like after prolonged use of meth (as seen at right)
Spencer explains that many drug prevention efforts fail because they rely on scare tactic, but that Face2Face personalizes the effects of meth.
Past experience and research, however, shows that scare tactics—especially those used in anti-drug campaigns—while initially promising, tend to fail. Adolescents, who already feel invincible, know that these worst case scenarios are unlikely to happen to them. So what can programs like Face2Face do to strengthen their effectiveness? Teenagers are more likely to not only hear but also to personalize safe behavior messages when they identify with the messenger and believe that the messenger faces the same concerns and pressures that they do. In other words, a peer to peer element is essential to the success of such efforts.
She continues:
The key to fighting drug use is not law enforcement but rather education across multiple platforms throughout the community. As [Mendocino County, California, Sheriff Thomas] Allman himself said “Law enforcement and government is not the answer to rampant drug use.”
It sounds like the Mendocino County Sherriff’s Office might be onto something. You read more about the program, including cost and implementation here: http://thecrimemap.crimereports.com/2010/01/26/face2face-this-is-your-face-on-meth/
James Gunter is the editor of The Crime Map and the director of social media for CrimeReports.com.
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