CYBERSPACE -- Sam Manning has seen the toll that meth can take on a human life -- and the lives of those around the addict, especially within the gay community. He speaks for many when he observes that the drug "has changed the face of our community both literally and figuratively with equal the wrath of AIDs during the 1980s."
Manning and the companies he co-owns have decided it's time to do something about it.
Tip Sesso, 1 Distribution, Carnaval Films, Major Wood Productions, and the new Toxic Video have joined together to promote LifeOrMeth.com, a website dedicated to providing information about meth that Manning believes is "one of the best put together" sites of its kind. Visitors will likely agree, since it is beautifully designed, includes a multitude of powerful and artistic meth awareness posters, and multiple text rich areas with resources, medical data, details about crystal culture, how meth affects AIDS risks, the issues behind meth's appeal, and powerful first-person accounts of living with, recovering from, or mourning lives lost to the seductive killer.
Although LifeOrMeth.com is based in London, Manning believes that the message is just as powerful for Americans. "If you do meth, you're destroying your health and life," he explains.
Manning is in a position to know. Like all too many others, he escaped a loving relationship that became ruled by meth-powered paranoia and abuse and watched powerlessly as his ex-partner slipped further into the grip of the drug, ultimately becoming another gaunt face of homelessness whose location is now unknown. Also like all too many others, this was not the only time that Manning had to compete with the deadly allure of "Tina" for the love of another. Indeed, like all too many others, Manning has lost friends not only to AIDS, but to the destruction of methylamphetamine.
According to Manning, "Recent surveys show that one in 10 Americans now use meth. This is an epidemic to which little is being done to stop."
That's why his companies' videos and websites will begin running ads from the Life or Meth poster campaigns. "Meth addition and abuse is an epidemic that has moved beyond just the gay and African-American communities," he points out, "It has invaded all walks of life, in every corner of the United States and across the globe."
Manning realizes that no one person nor any one company can change what has swept through so many communities and turned so many healthy, beautiful bodies into wrecked, dying, and unstable victims, but believes that in numbers there is strength. "If we get the right message into just one person's life and influence them to never try meth, or give them the avenue to find help quitting, then it is a worthwhile endeavor."
In addition to endorsing the "blunt honesty" of Life or Meth, Manning is also in communication with the softer spoken San Francisco-based Tweaker.org.
"If you saw one of your friends, co-workers, family members, boyfriend or girlfriend snorting drain cleaner to get high, would you just stand by and watch," he asks. "This is no different. In fact, that is an ingredient in meth. It is chemical Russian Roulette. It is only a matter of time before you lose."
Those hoping to learn more about how the can become involved with the Life or Meth mission are encouraged to visit LifeorMeth.com.
