MISSOURI MAN DIES AT 35 AFTER CHRONICLING HIS OWN DESCENT THROUGH
METHAMPHETAMINE

ST. LOUIS -- A southeast Missouri man who drew widespread attention
for his documentary about how methamphetamine ravaged his body has
died, but was optimistic at the end that his film would others from
the highly addictive stimulant.

"He was extremely satisfied, wanting to do more in getting the word
out and showing kids what meth harm does. We didn't get to that
point," his father, Jack Bridges, said in a telephone interview hours
after his son Shawn's death Monday at age 35. "He didn't want anyone
to go through what he did."

Shawn Bridges died shortly after 11:30 a.m. at a hospital in Cape
Girardeau, Mo., his father by his side.

"We'll still be trying to drive home the point that these drugs are
poison, and that people using them are heading the same place Shawn
has gone," Jack Bridges said.

Shawn Bridges gained publicity last year for "No More Sunsets," a
29-minute film shot by a former southern Illinois television
videographer at the request of Bridges, a former trucker who sought
to immortalize his slow, agonizing decline.

By his family's account, Bridges already had died at least twice well
before Monday, his heart so ravaged over the years by meth -- a
concoction that can include toxic chemicals such as battery acid,
drain cleaner and fertilizer -- that it stopped and had to be shocked
back into beating.

The documentary shows Bridges largely bedridden, his constant
companions a catheter and feeding tube he needed because of the poor
decisions he admitted making.

"I'd say he's got a 34-year-old body on the outside with 70- to
80-year-old man on the inside," his father told the AP in May of last year.

Roughly 28,000 people sought treatment for meth addiction across the
country in 1993, accounting for nearly 2 percent of admissions for
drug-abuse care, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration.

But just a decade later, the meth-related admissions numbered nearly
136,000 -- more than 7 percent of the national total for drug-abuse treatment.

Family members have said Shawn Bridges had been haunted by the dreary
day in 1976 when his younger brother Jason, barely a year old, died
in a car wreck. Shawn was just 4 and nowhere near the accident but
inexplicably blamed himself, wanting to trade places with his dead
sibling, his father has said.

Jack Bridges says Shawn's lenient upbringing set him on the road to
becoming "a little monster. By 16, the kid was a high school dropout
and partier." Twice, he tried to kill himself, family members have said.

Chip Rossetti, who filmed the documentary, said 500 to 600 copies
have been sold, with copies sent everywhere from Australia and
Canada. Bridges also was profiled on German public television.

Rossetti said Monday he plans a sequel, chronicling Bridge's final
year and testimonials by people touched by his awareness push.

"I don't think people will forget what got him to this point," said
Rossetti, now a sales manager for an indoor football team in
Evansville, Ind. "But what he did with his condition is really the
amazing thing."