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POLICE PHOTO CAMPAIGN SHOWS RAVAGES OF ADDICTION Shock tactics aimed at encouraging informants Scotland Yard launched a photo campaign yesterday to show the physical ravages caused by drug addiction, in an attempt to persuade people to shop dealers. Haunting police mugshots of three American addicts show their decline over a few years, from healthy women to skeletal figures with wizened faces and sunken eyes. The pictures were taken when the women were arrested for drug-related crimes and have been provided by US police departments, which are subject to less stringent confidentiality restrictions than their British counterparts. But the Metropolitan police said there were thousands of addicts with similar stories in the UK. They hope the press, radio, billboard, flyer and beermat advertisements, targeted on 16 drug hotspot boroughs around London, will shock the public into helping to tackle the problem. Drug abuse is behind a huge amount of crime. The Metropolitan police believe addicts commit as many as one in two burglaries and muggings, while shootings and kidnappings are a frequent fallout from dealers' turf wars. Commander Stephen James, head of the Met's drugs directorate, said: “This is a spiral of destruction with drug dealers providing the poison. Many addicts turn to crime in order to pay for drugs, and that crime can be very violent.” Those charged with what are termed “trigger offences”, which include street robberies and burglaries, are now routinely tested for drugs in 17 London boroughs and in several other cities, including Birmingham and Manchester. The government plans to extend the scheme nationwide. Cmdr James said about 50% of those charged with trigger offences were crack cocaine users. Police are working with health agencies and local authorities to ensure that addicts are offered counselling and rehabilitation programmes. The capital is plagued by crack cocaine, with about 45,000 such addicts, according to the Greater London authority's drugs advisory group. Cmdr James said crack was first imported into the UK in 1988-89, and became more “embedded” in London, although it had also spread to other regions. Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, head of the Yard's specialist crime directorate, said officers had had considerable success against drugs in recent months. In the last three weeks alone, police have carried out 65 intelligence-led anti-drug operations, arrested 146 people, and seized more than 5kg (11lb) of drugs, as well as cash and counterfeit notes, four guns and 20 knives. Mr Ghaffur said: “The message of this campaign is: 'Don't let drug dealers destroy the face of your neighbourhood.' There can be no more powerful deterrent than the whole community taking a stance against the drug dealers amongst them.” The three women featured in the advertisements are Roseanne Holland, from Florida, who was pictured between the ages of 29 and 37; Melissa Collara, also from Florida, who was 18 in the first photo and 21 in the second; and Penny Wood, from Chicago, whose decline is depicted from 36 to 40. Cmdr James said police did not know whether Ms Holland and Ms Collara, who was arrested 17 times for prostitution over three years, were still alive. But Ms Wood, who has been in a rehabilitation programme for 18 months, has written a moving letter to police, backing the campaign. “This drug is evil ... not only the outer disfiguration is extreme, the effects it has on your insides are worse ... It takes everything I have to walk a flight of stairs. My lungs are destroyed. I have no control over my bladder. My long-term and short-term memories are next to none. I've only been clear a year and a half, so my body and brains are still not complete. I want no pity. “I just want these young people to know what this stuff does to your insides as well as the outward appearance.”
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