The Killer Inside the Medicine Cabinet

Abusing alcohol and drugs isn’t pretty.

To provide graphic proof of that, Worcester County Sheriff Lew Evangelidis brought his Face2Face program to students Tuesday in Maureen Cimoch’s health class at .

The program, which is unique among sheriffs throughout the country, uses a cutting-edge software program to photograph students in the class Evangelidis is addressing. The software simulates the changes that addiction can bring to the same student, creating an “after’’ image of a skinny, pockmarked and washed-out individual.

Evangelidis hopes these images, which he has taken to schools throughout Worcester County, will provide vivid reminders of the potentially deadly ramifications of starting to drink or take drugs.

The software was developed for burn victims to see how their faces would be improved by plastic surgery. Evangelidis hopes the program he uses has the reverse affect and shows the ravages drugs and alcohol can cause in a startlingly short period of time.

“Alcohol and drugs are highly addictive,’’ Evangelidis told the students. “Quitting is not easy. Addiction is a disease that results in lifelong problems.’’

He told the students that in his role as sheriff, he has two important responsibilities: To care for the prisoners in the Worcester County House of Correction and to ensure that young people do not become his latest charges.

The prisoners in his facility range in age and criminal background but he said that as many as 90 percent share a common bond: They are addicted to alcohol and/or drugs.

Prisoners often tell Evangelidis that they “started smoking a little marijuana and thought it was no big deal.’’ But the pot led to even more serious drugs. Then the need to get the drugs led to robbery, burglary and other crimes.

And not all of them used so-called “hard drugs.’’ Evangelidis grew especially animated when discussing the dangers of prescription drugs.

The same drugs prescribed by doctors can be harmful and even fatal when used for the wrong reasons, he said.

“The biggest problem today is prescription drugs,’’ he said. “Today there are some prescription drugs that are as bad as or worse than heroin.’’

Evangelidis showed a video of a prisoner at the jail, sitting alone in an 8 by 10 cell, aimlessly juggling the orange he received as part of his breakfast. Every movement he makes _ asleep and awake, including using the toilet _ is watched by prison security.

“That’s no way to live,’’ Evangelidis said.

But it can be a way of life, when drugs and alcohol send young people down the wrong road, according to the message of his program.

“Every choice you make has a consequence,’’ Evangelidis said. “Every bad choice you make has a bad consequence.’’