Face2Face: This Is Your Face On Meth

Face2Face image from NPR.org

Earlier this month, National Public Radio (NPR) ran a piece on the efforts of Mendocino County, California, Sheriff Thomas Allman’s innovative approach to methamphetamine prevention amongst teenagers: Face2Face. The program uses software created by Abalone, LLC, to show teenagers what their appearance may look like after six months, a year, and three years of meth use. Capitalizing on teenagers’ concern with their appearance, the program hopes to personalize the damaging effects of methamphetamine on their teeth, skin, and hair. While other states use programs that show before and after pictures of actual meth addicts, this program goes one step further, personalizing the experience for their audience. Adolescents who have participated in the program report that the powerful imagery “brings you down to earth a little bit” and is “a good experience because you never want to see yourself that way.”

Scare Tactics

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.  The Mendocino County program is already heading in this direction. Their program is presented by Maureen Wattenburger, a 30-year-old, non-law-enforcement-officer county employee hired for the position, as opposed to Allman, the country sheriff. Perhaps as the program grows, Wattenburger and Allman can add a peer to peer element to further increase their success.

Coordinating Efforts and Approches

Additionally, Allman and Wattenburger provide parents with a kit that includes information about methamphetamine and a drug testing kit. The drug testing kit hopefully serves as a deterrent, letting the child know they could be tested at any time. One concerning obstacle to widespread implementation is the $3,000 pricetag of the Face2Face program. A solution to this may lie in coordinating efforts on a statewide level or across multiple counties. Better yet perhaps a pharmaceutical manufacturer could offer grants to states and counties interested in implementing such a program.

While scare tactics alone prove unsuccessful, it appears that Allman has taken his 28 years of law enforcement experience and put them to good use, tailoring his program to account for the failures of others. What is needed now is long term research on the effectiveness of the program and perhaps some attempts to include elements of other programs that have proven successful. The key to fighting drug use is not law enforcement but rather education across multiple platforms throughout the community. As Allman himself said “Law enforcement and government is not the answer to rampant drug use.”

For more on Face2Face see: http://www.abalonellc.com/face2fac2.html

Meridith Spencer is an adjunct Professor of Criminal Justice and Sociology at Bridgewater State College and Fisher College and an advocate for public policy that is “smart on crime.” She can be reached at meras28@gmail.com or followed at www.twitter.com/smartoncrime.

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Tagged as: crime prevention, crime reduction, drug prevention, drugs, law enforcement, law enforcement tools, police, technology