How Drug Abuse Affects The Body: Before & After Photography

I’ve written about this topic before, but it’s been a while, so I thought today would be a good day to touch on it again. I’m talking about drug abuse and how drug abuse affects our lives and the lives of everyone around us. For those of us who have never taken drugs, I think it can be hard to empathize and have compassion for those who are addicted to such nastiness like meth, heroin or cocaine. However, those people are living a harder life than what we can probably imagine. Drug abuse affects the body, mind and soul. It can take over our bodies, inside and out, in ways that are sometimes irreversible. Just take a moment to look at these before and after images to get a taste of the physical effects of drug abuse (which are only a small part of it all).

I am about to share with you some real mug shots of drug addicts, but before I do, I want to tell you about the images below. They are part of a photography project by Roman Sakovich. He wanted to capture how drug abuse affects the body, but since he wanted to do it by manipulating photography and showing them as “half-faces,” he used makeup to create the look. It’s a stunning photography collection that really makes a strong statement.

If you’d like to see some real mug shots to get the full effect, you can click over to an article I wrote a year ago called Shocking: The Effects Of Drug Addiction On The Face. If you wonder why drug abuse affects the face by causing those red sores (I wondered that before I researched it last year), I will tell you the reason. Here is a clip from that article (by me):

“Those sores on their faces are caused by meth. Often times users will feel like there are bugs crawling under their skin on their face, and they pick at it until it bleeds. Also, meth and heroin are often times cut with sugar, and when injected into the veins, sugar causes acne. It’s like an amplified effect of eating a bunch of candy bars. Meth also causes blood vessels to constrict, so part of the face shrinks, which gives the look of premature aging and sunken in features. Teeth can also be affected by turning black, or even falling out. Also, since many drug addicts don’t eat or sleep well, that contributes to their face transformation.”

It’s all heartbreaking, to say the least. I can’t help but think that if people knew how drug abuse affects users, they would stay far, far away from it. Every time I write about this, I hope that someone will read it and think, “I’m never going to do that to myself or my family.” Okay, now to cheer you up with something happy – how about some more “half-face” photography? I love those kinds of pictures. I have just the thing to put that smile back on your face…Draq Queens: Men’s Faces As Half Women & Half Men. Yup, that oughta do it!