NEW EXHIBIT SHOWS HOW DRUGS AFFECT YOU

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has a new weapon in its arsenal: a
museum exhibit on the production, distribution and dangers of illicit
narcotics.

The show - Target America: Opening Eyes to the Damage Drugs Cause -
opens today at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Experts
said they hope it will serve as a warning to people who think the
illegal drug trade does not touch their lives.

"If you think drugs don't affect you, think again," DEA Administrator
Karen P. Tandy said.

The exhibit, which runs through Dec. 3, offers an in-depth look at
the country's drug problem in both a historical and modern-day
context. Its displays include a jungle cocaine lab, an Afghan heroin
factory and a tenement crack house.

It recreates a hotel "cook" room, which is secured to make
methamphetamines. In 2005, law-enforcement officials discovered 930
meth labs in Illinois. The number represented nearly 8 percent of all
such busts nationwide, according to federal statistics.

The two-story exhibit also touches on the connection between the
Sept. 11 attacks and Afghanistan's heroin and opium production.
According to the DEA, roughly 50 percent of all organizations on the
U.S. government's list of terrorism sponsors - including the Taliban
- - receive money from illegal drug sales in the United States.

"It's a dream for all of us to wake up America," Tandy said. "Bring a
child, come to this exhibit and open their eyes to the dangers of drugs."

Rolling Meadows resident Kate Patton said she hopes parents also take
the time to absorb the exhibit's message. Her daughter, Kelley
McEnery Baker, 24, died in November 1999 after taking an Ecstasy pill.

Baker's photo is included in the exhibit, hanging among the portraits
of dozens of others who lost their lives because of drugs. The
display describes the people in the photographs simply as "lost talent."

"I hope people look at each picture and think, 'That could be me,'"
Patton said. "I hope parents look at each picture and think, 'That
could be my child.'"