Occasionally, there will be a poster or billboard claiming doing drugs will make you ugly. They will show a virtually emaciated person typically missing some teeth. is there any truth to this? What’s the SD?
Well these (the various ads and billboards) are scare-tactics that use real-life situations that can be and often are a result of long-term, untreated addiction. Of course, the first time someone tries crystal meth, they aren’t going to lose their teeth and develop sores all over their body; but the billboards show it this way to scare a person from ever going that route in the first place. It’s not just the drug(s) itself that causes the various devastating physical woes seen in many a documentary, drug-awareness commercial or even TV program. It’s a result of a COLLECTION of negative factors that come about because of the lifestyle typically lived by the hardcore addict. No attention is paid to hygiene (oral or otherwise), or nutrition; so no care is taken to keep the mouth clean AND any foodstuff that does go in is most likely high-sugar junk. On top of that, you often have the toxic effects of the drug itself (meth is the most noteworthy) that take their own devestating effects on the user by chronically introducing these dangerous chemicals into the body. With all this, plus terrible sleep patterns and often psychological illnesses underlying the drug use; lost teeth and other disfiguring ailments are not uncommon among the worst drug addicts (again, notably among meth addicts).
:eek: I’m not sure which of the pictures of that third guy are worse; the “before” or “after”…:eek:
As noted, street meth is the worst by far. I have had the opportunity to see people coming and going out of rehab many times for all kinds of drug problems. Most people, especially the younger ones, look pretty normal after a few days of medical care and the withdrawal symptoms subside.
A lot of it is socioeconomic as well. I have met well respected businessmen that were true crack addicts but you never would have guessed it just because of the way they dressed and groomed. Poor crack addicts often look the way they do just because of poor nutrition and hygiene that is just compounded by an addiction problem.
Alcoholism can have some telltale visible physical signs especially when serious liver damage sets in but not everyone gets it. Many alcoholics look downright attractive for a very long time. Most alcoholics in the later stages will develop nutrition problems that cause all kinds of visible and invisible physical markers like stomach distention and an off skin color. It generally takes years and massive amounts drinking to get to that point however.
Heroine tends to make users take on a very unhealthy looking thin appearance and hard users end up shooting up so much it leaves scars all over their accessible veins. They usually look very sick.
Street meth is the demon incarnation of every drug warning parents and teachers gave to earlier generations except it is real this time. Forget those earlier wolf warnings. It is simple bad news all around and will destroy looks rather quickly once addiction sets in but that is the least of the person’s worries at that point.
Yeah, there’s a whole documentary on these people that Multnomah County put out. His before, I think, is still kind of an after.
Do a google search for “faces of meth” and you’ll find hundreds more pictures like these. Beauties galore!!
“Intervention” is available on Netflix instant, and it’s remarkable how different the addicts look after treatment. During addiction, the hard core addicts look grey and drawn and without expression. After treatment, they have normal color, gain a little weight, and are more animated and smiling again. Alcoholics get swollen-looking faces, with puffy eyes. That all goes away a couple months after withdrawal. Some of the changes are really astounding.
As to the specific claim on the billboards in the OP about tooth loss, it can occur very quickly in meth users. A google for “meth mouth” will return all the stomach-churning photos you care to view.
An explanation for that specific means of getting “drugly” (did I invent a new word?) is provided here(*warning - a nauseating photo of a diseased human mouth comes along with the article) coincides with the general medical opinions found in most of the search results.
Have you heard of Hollywood?
On Demotivational posters, there’s a great before and after shot of Amy Winehouse.
Here’s a link to the Amy Winehouse before and after. She’s a good counter-example to the poverty reason - no shortage of money there.
Thanks for the link, man that was fast!
Calling **Qadgop the Mercotan. ** Hey Doc!
No worries, I had to find it after your post. Pretty amazing decline in just four years if the poster dates are accurate.
Even worse than meth is krokodil, though I guess most of us don’t meet many destitute Russian drug addicts to see what sort of effects it has. The wiki article has no pictures and is fairly short, but if you feel like googling there’s plenty of horror stories elsewhere on the net, including a video.
Apparently, meth can also take your haircut straight back to the mid 1980s. :eek:
I’ve though that smoking (not one cigarette, but decades of smoking regularly) does this, and recently discovered that others have observed something as well - there’s a phenomenon called “smoker’s pallor”.
With many types of serious drug addictions there is a high probability of the addiction essentially being “terminal” if they do not stop. There are very few long term, terminal conditions I can think of which in their later stages do not cause a human’s physical appearance to diminish substantially.
:eek: Definitely not for the faint of heart. My god. Meth suddenly looks like the healthy alternative.
Also: In Soviet Russia, drug consumes you (literally, unfortunately).
Depends on which type of drugs your talking about…
Meth will fuck you up, over time!
Weed, more than likely won’t, maybe will just get bags under your eyes, is about it.
Pills, not exactly sure - depends on which ones.
Booze, will make others look pretty.
I think they’re are some drugs out there that actually help your body, but don’t think those ones are, ones off the streets…
It is a trick!
The BEFORE photos are of people who are younger.
The AFTER photos are invaraibly photos of people who are older.
So, of course, most people look worse as they get older. As people age, they will look worse whether they use drugs or not. Compare any photo of someone, anyone, in their 20’s to how they have changed, for the worse, 20 years later.
I can show you the same BEFORE and AFTER effects of someone who has been drinking milk for 20 years.