Their faces are gaunt, covered with black scabs and open sores. Their teeth are gray and crumbling, their gums are black and eroded. Some are in their early 20s, but appear to be twice their actual age. They are the Faces of Meth, an educational photo collection of incarcerated methamphetamine addicts, compiled from mug shots taken by Deputy Bret King at the Multnomah County Jail in Oregon. 

"When I look at these pictures, when I look into the face of an addict, I see the face of a young kid in my neighborhood," said King. "It makes you want to pull your hair out when you see up close what this drug can do."

And corrections agencies across the country are starting to see these faces in large numbers.

Methamphetamine is a powerful and highly addictive synthetic stimulant, often smoked or injected. A user immediately experiences an intense sensation followed by a high that may last 12 hours or more. Crack cocaine, in comparison, gives users a high lasting only 20 or 30 minutes.

But after addiction sets in, the nightmare starts. Addicts constantly scratch themselves because they feel like thousands of tiny bugs have burrowed under their skin. They will do anything to rip the bugs out, even tear into their own flesh. Their teeth rot, their hair falls out, and after they have exhausted all their resources, they will do whatever it takes to get more.

"I'd almost have a kid try anything else," said King.

His pictures are evidence of the horrors awaiting those who have gotten caught up in America's latest plague. "These pictures speak for themselves," he said.  

King, who works at the intake unit of the county jail, said he first got the idea for Faces of Meth when he began noticing that the early mug shots of some repeat offenders, barley even resembled their current condition. When he interviewed them during intake, he always heard the same story: they were meth addicts.

"They looked like they had the life sucked out them," said King. "But I realized a lesson can be learned from what I'd seen."

  The inmates wanted to help also and agreed to let King use their pictures. Some even made video recorded messages in which they warned children about meth.

"Across the board, they are ashamed that they have been sucked in by this drug," said King. "It has destroyed them, it has taken away their lives."

Using this gallery of self-destruction, King originally hoped to reach the children of Multnomah County and surrounding Oregon communities to warn them about the dangers of meth. He had no idea it would become a weapon in the fight to raise national meth awareness.

"It's really taken off and got legs of its own," said King.

Now, Faces of Meth can be accessed via the internet, CDs and posters with the pictures are distributed to schools and anti-drug groups across the nation, and images from King's collection have been shown on network television and in national publications. King also travels the country making presentations.

"I said we really had to get into the community," said King. "We in corrections are not known for that. The public prefers to keep us in the shadows. They want to forget about those people [inmates]. But back here between the bars and glass, we've got human beings."

Now that Faces of Meth has helped bring meth addiction to the forefront of national debate, King has also noticed that corrections institutions are beginning to realize the sting of meth as prison populations rise and inmate medical costs soar.

"This is not your average problem," said King. "We've all seen cocaine, we've seen heroine, we've seen marijuana. But this is so prevalent, so dangerous, and it is such an overwhelming part of the jail population. We had to step up to the plate."

King's home state of Oregon treats more meth addicts per capita than anywhere else in the nation and nearly 45 percent of all arrests in Multnomah County are meth-related along with 85 percent of all property crime, according to King.

But meth use is by no means limited to Oregon and the National Association of Counties has recently labeled it their number one problem. Many corrections officials nationwide have done the same.

"If we were overloaded before, now we're overloaded times 10," said Edward O'Brien, Medical Director for the Iowa Department of Corrections. "Meth has been a big budget issue everywhere in the country and resources are stretched thin."

Unlike many state DOCs that keep statistics relating to drug offenders as a whole, Iowa keeps meth-specific numbers regarding its prison population.

In 1995, approxiamtely 31 percent of offenders admitted to the Iowa DOC had offenses involving methamphetamine but, by 2004, meth offenders accounted for 62 percent of the total population, according the Iowa Prison Population Forecast.

The story is similar in Minnesota, another state hit especially hard by meth addiction and meth-related crime.

"It has impacted our system by bringing more people into our system," said Dennis Benson, Deputy Commissioner for Minnesota DOC. "In 2002, we had 140 meth offenders. But in the first six months of 2005, we had over 1,000. It has certainly impacted our population growth."

Meth addicts cost the DOC money in a variety of ways, according to Benson. "It has impacted our budget," he said. "We need to additional beds, we rent beds, and it has taxed our psychological services and our dental services as well."

Meth addicts often suffer from "meth mouth," an especially nasty dental affliction that leads to accelerated tooth decay and gum erosion.

"They have holes in their teeth that you can see from across the room," said James Clare, Assistant Director of Dental Services for the North Carolina Department of Corrections. "Most of them are in pain and they seek dental services early on after coming into the system."

Meth mouth is caused by the corrosive chemicals in meth, like brake cleaner, that come across the front teeth when the drug is smoked. Meth also causes intense dry mouth, depriving the mouth of all saliva, the primary defense against plaque.

"The costs are incurred by removing the hopeless teeth, filling in and salvaging teeth, and making dentures," said Clare. "Our policy is to make dentures if an inmate has lost four or more teeth. We make lots of dentures."

There is also a great deal spent on drug rehabilitation, something that takes longer with meth addicts and requires more aftercare and supervision upon release. In the corrections setting, this rehabilitation process is often complicated.

"It has some unique aspects to its treatment and may require a longer period of treatment," said Richard Rawson, a substance abuse expert at UCLA who has been studying meth for nearly 20 years. "As meth poisons the brain, people become irritable, paranoid, and psychotic. It changes areas of the brain."

In Iowa, O'Brien said he had one meth-addicted inmate who became particularly difficult to treat. "He couldn't leave his cell because he was agoraphobic," said O'Brien. "But he couldn't stay in his cell because he claustrophobic. So, he just stood in the doorway."

But, despite the severity of meth addiction, Rawson stresses that addicts can be treated. "There is serious misinformation about meth addicts being untreatable," he said. "It is just that training is an overwhelming need. Eighty percent of the work is done in rehab centers with properly trained staff. If prisons don't connect an addict to outpatient treatment and you send them back into the world without aftercare, it is going to have no effect at all with meth users."

Recently there has been debate as to whether or not meth is an epidemic or if it is simply being blown out proportion by the media.

"As soon as you use the word epidemic there is going to be [debate]," said Rawson. "But, I've seen this progress from the West Coast to the Rocky Mountains to East of the Mississippi, to the East Coast...You can't go to a community in the West or Midwest like Utah, Oregon, Minnesota, or Missouri and hear community leaders say 'What meth problem?"

In Oregon, King says he is committed to protecting his corner of the world.

"The shock value of these pictures is lost after the first few minutes," King said, referring the presentations he makes to children. "There has to be an educational message. This isn't scared straight, I'm just layin' it out there honestly. I point to a picture and say this guy could have sat in your chair and thought what you thinking right now: this will never happen to me."