New "Faces of Meth" Video Shows Harrowing Pictures of the Drug’s Mutilating Effects

A new anti-drug video illustrates the shocking physical transformation people experience after years of being addicted to methamphetamine.

The video, which shows pictures of people's faces before and after they got hooked on meth, confirms the horrific mutilating effect the highly addictive drug can have on a person's appearance and allows addicts and potential users to see the drug's irreparable physical impact.

The photographs in the video were collected from mug shots of drug users arrested repeatedly over the years.

Facial transformations caused by methamphetamine are clear to see just months after first taking the drug, and dramatic disfiguring changes are visible after just a few years.

The continued drug use led to severe damage to the addicts' skin, which is often covered with sores and scarring, which can be caused by uncontrollable scratching during a hallucination when users often "feel" bugs crawling under their skin.

The other facial changes seen in the video produced by Rehabs.com include "meth-mouth" which is caused by decay and grinding.

The users in the video also gradually waste away, which is caused by malnutrition as the drug suppresses a person's appetite and the body can begin to consume its own muscle tissue because it is not getting proper nutrition.

Deputy Bret King from Multnomah County Sheriff's Office in Oregon conceived the concept for the anti-drug advertisement in 2004.

King began tracking mug shots of people brought into police custody more than once.

Over the years, the officer witnessed the stark effects methamphetamine had on addicts, and decided to compile the photos for an anti-drug campaign in December 2004 to educate children and young people on the harsh realities of the drug abuse.

"I've made it my business to go through the mug shot system every day. I'll admit it: I'm looking for the most extreme faces," King told The Oregonian in 2004 about the project.

The new video (below) and pictorial from Rehabs.com comes after a 2011 photo spread from the Oregon police called "From Drugs to Mugs". The photo spread shows the physical impact of all hard drugs including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

"Everyone experiments at college or school and I want From Drugs to Mugs to show kids that everyone in those pictures started on cannabis, they didn't just dive head first into heroin," King said in 2011, according to the Daily Mail. "So I ask the students at schools to look at these people and think about their actions, otherwise that could end up being you."

On King's Face of Meth website he warns people of the dangers of the hard drug.

"The message is clear. Substance abuse will change your life in ways you never imagined," King said on the site.

Rehabs.com also compares before and after images of addicts' faces to show the scientific transformations they experience to their physical appearance and health after using the drug, which is taken by an estimated 25 million people around the world.

"Addiction touches nearly every family, ravaging physical and mental health, relationships, and personal finances. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, daughters and sons," the anti-drug website warns.

"No one is immune to the frightening long-term impact of hard drug abuse. What follows is a sobering depiction of REAL individuals who've fallen victim to the temptation of drug use - in this case, Methamphetamine - whose devastating effects are all too apparent."