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Marc Giauque ReportingIt's a new look at a problem that continues to grow in Utah. Tonight, a high school student will screen her film on the methamphetamine epidemic. It's a film that was sparked by personal experience.
"All of the family seemed perfect and everybody seemed happy. But one day this perfect veneer cracked," says Alex Mack, a senior at West High School.
She says the meth problem became personal, when she learned from her father that a close relative was addicted.
"He was around it so he knew that something wasn't right. So he started digging around and he found out that that's what she was on."
Mack says it was a shock.
"I thought that a drug addict was someone on the street corner, not someone like her."
It was a shock, though, that moved her to make it the subject of a short film.
"I'm afraid to show this film to people and to my dad, because I love and respect my family. And I don't want to do anything that will upset or embarrass them. But I think they need to hear the these stories," Mack says.
Mack and fellow student Diana Montero spoke with doctors, experts and recovering meth addicts.
"Most of them that I talked to said they had no idea what it would do to them. And I think that's really important to show people that this is not a good thing," Mack says.
It's who is using and where they got their first lines that also surprised Mack initially.
"Lots of them actually got it from their family members," says Mack.
"My using meth got my mom started on it; she had never done it before. And I gave her her first line, and she hasn't been able to quite since," says one addict.
Mack says her relative is now a recovering addict. The Department of Human Services will screen the 20-minute film tonight and will follow it with a panel discussion.
