FACE OF METH: FORMER ABUSER WARNS OTHERS

Her drug-ravaged face stares out from billboards worldwide.

Enormous weight loss shows a boney, sunken face with ghost-like
features.

Ratty hair, rotten teeth and a vacant expression spell out a dire
warning.

Downstate grandmother Penny Wood said she often regrets allowing
authorities to publicize her mugshot -- even though her permission
spared her a lengthy stay in prison. But she regrets discovering
methamphetamine even more.

"This drug is evil," she wrote in an e-mail to law enforcement
officers.

Wood was caught manufacturing the highly addictive and destructive
drug, which almost killed her. It is a drug that is being made all
over rural parts of Illinois.

Methamphetamine, also known as "ice" or "crystal," is snorted,
injected or smoked. A small dose can lead to a two-day high, making it
more cost-effective than other drugs like cocaine, authorities say.

Though not widespread in Chicago, police fear the illegal drug could
become an epidemic if street gangs here decide to sell it.

Wood, 42, was caught making methamphetamine at her home in central
Illinois. To dodge 30 years in jail, she agreed to an unusual plea
bargain.

She said two of her mugshots could be shown to the public. The first
from 1998 shows her as a healthy looking 36-year-old. Her 2002 shot
tells a different story, showing the horrifying effects of the drug on
the central nervous system.

This week, police in London made her their poster child.

At her home in Pekin, about 170 miles southwest of Chicago, Penny sat
down to tell her story to the Sun-Times.

First she showed a framed photograph of herself aged 31 with her first
grandchild, Dustin. Her carefully applied makeup disguises the hard
life she was living.

'I started drinking at 11'

"I hung out with an older crowd and started drinking when I was just
11," Wood said. "At 12, I ran away from home with my stepfather's
brother, George, who was 17.

"He provided the pot, beer and Jack Daniels that kept us giggling as
we spent every day and night dodging the law.

"Running the streets, smoking pot and drinking was pretty much all we
did every single day. It was fun. At 13, I was pregnant, and the
schools didn't want to know me then. Our first baby, Amy, was born
when I was 14 and we found a place of our own. We lived on welfare and
handouts from George's parents."

Wood gave birth to another child before she married at 16. She was
pregnant for the wedding, but the baby only lived 17 days. Two more
pregnancies followed.

"I was only 20 but I had given birth five times," she said. "My
husband used to beat me and sometimes take off with my welfare check
and leave us with no food.

"From 18 on, I smoked pot every day and tried LSD a few times. My
favorite drink was Southern Comfort and Mountain Dew. I would give the
children their breakfast, see them off to school and smoke pot. Most
evenings I would go to bars, play pool and hustle for drinks and money."

In 1998 she went with a boyfriend to see friends in Missouri and
visited an isolated farm.

Penny had never heard of methamphetamine but discovered that her hosts
cooked it up in industrial quantities. Unaware of its addictive
quality, she tried. She didn't go home for a year.

'Our whole lives were meth'

"They told me if I tried it I would lose weight and stay awake for a
long time so I could party even more," she said. "It was like I was
walking on clouds. Nothing bothered me and nobody could get into my
world."

Sex with her boyfriend was "awesome" on the drug, she said, but she
soon needed to do more to get high. She began helping to manufacture
and sell the drug, using a horse trough to mix large quantities.

"It was an incredibly easy way to make money," Wood said. "For an
investment of $40 for the ingredients, you could make $3,000 worth of
dope."

Wood smoked, snorted and ate the drug to get high.

"Between highs I just slept," she said. "At my worst, I would go to
bed with a line ready to snort when I opened my eyes, a light bulb
made as a pipe to smoke it, a piece to eat and a Budweiser for breakfast.

"Our whole lives were making, dealing and using meth."

'I Am the Butt of Jokes'

Wood returned home for her mother's funeral and was arrested for
possessing a marijuana pipe and fined $75.

Four years later when Wood was caught manufacturing methamphetamine
and agreed to let her photographs be used, she was assured that her
name would not be used. But that didn't mean much in Pekin --
population 33,000.

As she sat in her living room festooned with plastic flowers,
ornaments and the paraphernalia of a recovering addict -- Bible,
framed prayers -- Wood insisted: "Some days I think prison would have
been a lot easier.

"I was hoping to get a job, but everyone knows my past and they won't
give me a chance," she said. "My disabilities because of the years I
did meth include a chronic cough, so waitressing is out of the
question. My lungs are so damaged that I have difficulty walking up a
flight of stairs."

Tending bar is out because of the risk of falling back into addiction.
Janitorial jobs in schools or nursing homes are out because of her
conviction.

"I thought people would want to employ me because I've acknowledged my
past and I've changed, but it's totally the opposite," she said. "I
don't go out much any more because people whisper about me and point
fingers.

"I am the butt of jokes on radio and even when I go to my probation
office -- where my picture is on the wall -- people snicker. At 42, I
have to face up to the fact that being a poster girl has not improved
my life at all. The notoriety has been very damaging and if I could
change that I would."

Her first grandchild, Dustin, now 12, poses with her for pictures. She
hardly resembles the woman holding him as a baby.

"I've paid for my mistakes," she said. "I have 10 grandkids, and I
don't want them to suffer. Other kids tease them about what I've done.
I didn't expect this level of public humiliation."

'Disfiguration Is Extreme'

After police in London wrote asking to use her picture, she replied
spelling out all her disabilities.

Hello. I wanted to thank you for asking permission to use my photo as
so many don't. This drug is evil. There is no other way to describe
it.

Not only the outer disfiguration is extreme, the effects it has on
your insides are worse.

Young (old) people need to know that maybe for a minute you'll be
skinny and full of energy, but the long term effects are . . . I have
no word to describe, but here is my story for young people to
consider. It takes everything I have to walk a flight of stairs. My
lungs are destroyed.

I have no control over my bladder -- I pee my pants all the time. I
can't take a bowel movement without a laxative. . . .

And all this is just the beginning. . . . I want no pity, I just want
those young people and old to know what this stuff does to your
insides as well as the outward appearance.

Sincerely Penny S. Wood

Stewart Umholtz, the Tazewell County state's attorney who offered her
the plea bargain, said he has received e-mails from all over the world
seeking permission to use Wood's photograph.

"We felt the poster campaign would help her in her rehabilitation, and
we agreed not to use her name," Umholtz said. "But it got out after
people approached her to find out more."

'Nothing to Show for It'

Today, Wood faces a 9 p.m. curfew, required community service, daily
visits by law enforcement officers, random urine tests, the threat of
prison time if she strays and occasional raids by police. A few weeks
ago, a drug enforcement team with machine guns surrounded her house,
burst in, searched her house and found nothing.

Her daughter, Iva, served 2-1/2 years in prison for
methamphetamine-related crimes. Her son, Timmy, is behind bars for
manufacturing meth, a craft Wood said he learned from her.

"After all that has happened, I still hope that by cooperating
something good will happen," Wood said. "Between us we have nothing to
show for it.

"I was overwhelmed when I heard from the British police. I want people
to know that it ends in destruction, jail or death."