ANTI-DRUG POSTERS HIT THE STREETS

ASHEVILLE - It has been a year since Carl Mumpower started handing
out hundreds of anti-drug posters from the trunk of his car.

Despite mixed reactions to the red posters from the
Asheville-Buncombe Drug Commission and not knowing whether the
message is really getting out, Mumpower said he has no plans to stop.

"We're pulling no punches with our posters," said Mumpower, chairman
of the drug commission and city council member. "We're trying to pull
the reality of hard drugs into the public eye."

The board commissioned some 10 posters, and Mumpower said there are
plans to produce more showing before and after shots of people
physically afflicted by drug use.

"We try to keep the whole ad really in your face and kind of
emotional," said Matt Levin, art director for the Goss Agency, a
local advertising agency responsible for designing the posters.

He said the posters were designed to catch the eye with a bold, red
background. The subjects alternate between harsh, graphic images
showing the physical affects of drugs and the positive aspects of a
life without drugs.

"It's trying to sort of scare people away from starting," Levin said.

The Asheville Citizen-Times is paying for the printing of the
posters, which Mumpower estimates to cost between $6,000 and $9,000
for a year's worth.

In the city's public housing developments, where drug activity is
more concentrated, the posters are especially important, said Housing
Authority Director Gene Bell.

"I think we want people, especially the young people, to know the
long-term effect this could have on them," he said. "You have to keep
working on them."