BEFORE-AND-AFTER PHOTOGRAPHS SHOW RAVAGES OF METH

Addict's Plea Bargain Creates Teen Lesson

PEKIN, Ill. - Penny Wood agreed in February to let authorities publish
photographs of her that graphically depict the ravages of methamphetamine
use, thinking that this unusual provision of a plea bargain agreement to
escape a long prison sentence might deter others from using the homemade drug.

Now, though, local distribution of the photos has become something of a
modern-day scarlet letter for Wood, who says she can scarcely walk down the
streets of this central Illinois river town without people pointing and
whispering. She is the butt of jokes on local radio, and one of her
grandsons said he worries that the "after" picture in which "Grandma looks
purple" will show up in his elementary school.

But state prosecutors say they plan to keep circulating the pictures, which
have become the centerpiece of a public campaign against methamphetamine
use. They believe the pictures are convincing local teenagers with a
surprisingly effective argument that meth might make them ugly.

Prosecutors' refusal to back down in the face of Wood's complaints and
threats of a lawsuit illustrate just how concerned authorities are becoming
about meth, as the powerfully addictive drug gains popularity across the
state. Methamphetamine, which belongs to the same class of drugs as
cocaine, is a particular problem in rural areas, where many of its
ingredients can be found in farm fertilizers, but it's reportedly growing
in use in Chicago and the suburbs.

But in Pekin, just south of Peoria, Ill., law-enforcement officials have a
campaign going that they think is proving effective at the local level.

The idea was born recently when Tazewell County State's Attorney Stewart
Umholtz sorted through before and after pictures of Wood, a meth addict who
has been charged several times with drug offenses.

In the first picture, a police booking photo from a drug arrest in 1998,
Wood was a full-faced, youthful-looking woman. In the second, a 2002
booking photo, Wood is a gaunt and sickly 40-year-old with dry, cracked
facial skin and poor color.

"When I first saw the two, it was apparent the photographs themselves
described the dangers of methamphetamine use better than any words I can
ever use," Umholtz said.

Not long after, Umholtz's office offered a plea bargain that would free
Wood on probation if she would consent to the public use of her photos.

"The state is allowed to use booking photos for drug education purposes,"
the agreement said. "No identifying information shall be used."

Wood signed the document, and as a result prosecutors agreed to lower her
sentence to the 32 days she had already served in the county jail and four
years of probation. Wood had been convicted of drug possession once before
and could have received 30 years of prison time if she had been convicted
of unlawful criminal drug conspiracy.

Her understanding of the agreement, she now says, is that her photographs
would be used in a low-key awareness program, maybe at local drug treatment
and prevention programs. She says she also believed that because Umholtz's
office agreed not to supply her name along with the photographs, no one
would find out who she was.

"It was to be used for drug education purposes only, to keep kids off
drugs," Wood said. "Because that picture would. If that picture doesn't
shock a child, I don't know what will."

Local officials thought so too. Before long, the photos were posted at the
local Boys & Girls Club, the probation office and on the Web site of
Umholtz's office. High school officials also plan to post the pictures, and
police in neighboring jurisdictions have asked for copies.

In accordance with his agreement, Umholtz never released Wood's name in
conjunction with her photos on educational materials. But in Pekin, a city
of 33,000, that hasn't made much difference. Newspapers have run her name
with the photos, and everybody knows who Wood is by now anyway.

The photos they have seen around town have persuaded at least some
teenagers to stay off meth.

"It's disgusting," said Jon Behrends, 18, referring to Wood's photos.

"It made me see what it does to you and the effects that it has on your
body," said Chris Lang, 18.

A mile and a half away from the Tazewell County Courthouse, Wood hunkers
down in her cluttered apartment, chain-smoking Marlboros and cursing the
day she signed the agreement. She said she is in an outpatient
rehabilitation program and that she is clean and sober today.

Her main objection is the public humiliation the dissemination of the
photos has caused her and, she says, her four children and 10 grandchildren
scattered mostly around Tazewell County.

"I have no problem trying to help keep people off drugs because it is
really my life completely," Wood said. "But they went about it wrong. I've
paid for my mistakes. I don't want my grandchildren to keep paying for my
mistakes."