Instant pleasure, instant ageing

摘要

Visitors to a county court in Salt Lake City, Utah, are shown photographs of a woman in her late 20s who has been arrested several times for dealing in meth-amphetamine, a notoriously addictive and increasingly common street drug. She used the drug herself, and the photos show her ageing some 30 years over a five-year period: cheeks sinking, eyes turning glassy, teeth rotting. Utah proves methamphetamine's awful power. This predominantly Mormon state largely eschews coffee, tobacco and alcohol. But it ranks third nationally in the percentage of arrested men who tested positive for meth, and meth-related crimes are said to account for perhaps 80% of the criminal activity in the state.