Brockton Photovoice Project
Summer 2013
“It kind of looks like someone is trying to hide it. People who use drugs try to hide it from their families, but they still do it because they can’t stop. They might know it is wrong, but it shows how powerful and out of control things can get.”
“If you choose to do drugs, your life turns up-side down and you will never be the same. People can recover, but it has happened and they will always struggle. You can’t get all the way back because you will always have regrets.”
“This picture portrays the memory of one of our participants when discussing drugs. When her uncle was in active addiction, he stole from her little brother’s piggy bank: “It takes away safety from innocent children and teaches them that they can’t trust anyone.”
“I took this picture because it reminds me that you can ingest drugs in so many different ways. This is scary to me because you don’t see this in daily life. It reminds me of the desperation in using.”
“I realized that in our community, it can happen to legit anyone. It can happen to a perfect family, anyone, and it can ruin anyone’s family. A house like this can just hide it better.”
“We all know that drugs aren’t safe, but if you see this pill bottle you don’t really think anything of it. The pill bottle is like safe and the pills inside are dangerous; there is danger within.”
“Because of drugs, people who are really focused on something, like their dreams, can lose it.”
“I could see the police caution tape and it reminds me that drugs can lead to other crimes like stealing and such.”
“Once you start using drugs, you can’t re-enter your life where you left it.”
“There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. There is always a way out.”
“Drugs will break and crush your dreams. It will destroy what you always wanted.”
“You always hear the ‘don’t do drugs’ talk. But then your doctor hands this to you and says ‘take this it will fix your back pain, your cough or your cold’. You don’t think anything of it. When you’re in the room with the doctor and tell them what’s wrong, they just are like ‘Oh I’ll prescribe you this. I’ll prescribe you your drug addiction’. Doctors prescribe it, so your doctor could be your drug dealer. Doctors never explain what the drugs might do to you.”
“People use drugs for different reasons. Everyone is different, maybe somebody didn’t feel like a man before and it made them feel more powerful or stronger. There is a different reason for everyone, because everyone has a different story. People judge people who use drugs, but people have reasons why they use drugs. People have individual reasons to get clean, no matter how many people help you. You have to want it. You need to believe that you can stop.”
“She doesn’t look like the typical person that you think of when you think of someone who uses drugs. It’s not just the person in the alley with the drugs; it could be the sophomore in high school with the perfect hair and a lot of friends. It could be the popular girl or someone big into school. You can look at someone and see perfection, but you don’t know what’s going on so you shouldn’t judge. Like you can’t see her face, what if she’s crying?”
“Often people go to cheaper drugs like heroin, when Oxycontin or Percocet becomes too expensive. Prescription pills have the same effect as what’s in the heroin needle, but people don’t often realize that because the doctor gives it to you. When you say pills, you think more medical use, but with heroin you just think drugs.”
“It’s best to have a lock on the medicine cabinet so that kids or even teenagers can’t get to it. Maybe also, it can be a whole different perspective and having your life locked up. You’re like locked into that world, it’s a trapped feeling. Do you lock other people out? You lock yourself out- you lock yourself out of your family and then your house. The drugs just take over, it’s not even you.”
“Something can be done. Find people that can help you get through the struggles and complications so you aren’t alone. They can maybe help and support. Maybe you can make stuff that people can talk about and make communities make a pact to not use drugs. The person in the red is the user and all the people in the blue are protecting.”
“It’s look like a teenager handing it to her friend. They are sharing a medication, which is so common, and people don’t take the time to read the directions.”
“This shows that a lot of people can die of an overdose. This is someone mourning over a loss. Friends feel like they could have done something.”
“People are at one point faced with the opportunity to choose whether to do drugs or not. What can be done is choosing the right path.”
“This is what she is seeing and she loves the effect. She is running towards it because she clearly likes it. She loves what it’s doing to her senses and she loves what she sees. She feels on top of the world. This is the part of what they enjoy and it blocked out the harsh reality.”
“People can get drugs anywhere and people will do anything to get them. She is climbing the fence; struggling on the outside, but still climbing even though it’s dangerous. She’s trapped.”
“This shows that drugs wear a community down. You’re locked in your own world. You’re trapped.”
“This shows that addiction literally takes over your life in the scariest way. You are so desperate; you’re leading a double life. You are a loving mother, but also struggling with addiction. It is always right there, and it’s not going away. It’s always on your back.”
“The light in the corner is the good side, and she is running away from it towards the woods and going deeper into the darkness. Maybe she is ashamed. It’s like two different worlds and she is in the middle and doesn’t know what direction to run in.”
“I think the biggest problem is that kids don’t know what can happen when you start. It could help them if they know what could happen. When we’re faced with it, you won’t know what to do with it because teachers haven’t talked to you about it. I think the teachers are afraid to talk about drugs; it’s harsh trying to teach even for parents. But when we are faced with it we won’t know what to do because no one even talked to us. People don’t know how serious it is once they start, they think they can try it just once, but then they’re hooked. I’m sure some parents have the conversation. My parents haven’t talked to us about drugs at all, other than don’t do it and stay away from people who do it.”