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DEA Museum staff spent two days at Capitol Museum Services’ warehouse opening all crates and documenting the exhibit. The team identified where updates are needed and are currently working to research, write, and design new content.
DEA Museum staff members have a heavy lift – 32 crates on two tractor-trailer rigs! This is the scope of the traveling exhibit Drugs: Costs and Consequences, which has been in storage due to the pandemic. The good news is that it is now undergoing updates and a refurbishment to hit the road again. The exhibit’s next venue will be the West Virginia State Museum in Charleston, West Virginia. Opening in early September, the exhibit will welcome local school children and families thanks to DEA’s new drug prevention partner, GameChanger West Virginia, and the exhibit’s founding partners, the DEA Educational Foundation and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
The 5,500-square-foot exhibit is a comprehensive look at the science of drugs and drug manufacturing, drug trafficking, money laundering, how drugs fund terrorism, illicit drugs’ effects on children and communities, addiction and mental health, and even how drug cultivation affects national parks. The exhibit will also tell the local story of drugs and drug law enforcement in the state in partnership with the DEA Louisville Field Division.
Since its development more than 20 years ago, the exhibit has traveled to 17 locations and has been seen by more than 20 million people. The refurbished exhibit will soon have a similar, robust travel schedule, with venues lining up to host it for their communities, primarily at museums and science centers.
“This exhibit is not a one-and-done traveling exhibit. Bringing it to a city acts as a catalyst for community conversation and problem-solving,” said DEA Museum Director Jan Wrzesinski. “It is highly educational and has been embraced by school teachers, educators at all levels, drug prevention specialists, and families who want to learn more and teach their children about drugs. Our goal is to continue to expand its reach and impact, and happily, many other cities are waiting in the wings to host the exhibit in the future.”
How did the exhibit come to be?
In 2001, soon after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the DEA Educational Foundation Board and Former DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson met to discuss opportunities for collaboration. With the Pentagon still smoldering from the attack across the street from DEA Headquarters, the group quickly agreed that a national symposium on drug trafficking’s connections to terrorism and a traveling museum exhibit on the topic were in order.
Following the symposium, the DEA Museum, in partnership with the DEA Educational Foundation and supported by SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, launched its first national traveling exhibit, Target America: Opening Eyes to the Damage Drugs Cause. The exhibit’s goal was to raise public awareness of the tragic link between drugs and terrorism and explore the science behind the destructive effects that drug misuse has on the human body.
In 2003, when DEA and the DEAEF moved the exhibit to the famous 15,000-square-foot One Times Square in New York City, it was clear that the exhibit’s scope should expand. Drug misuse impacts the United States on many levels – from individual harm to society’s productivity, safety, security, and beyond. Americans needed more information on the science of drugs and the consequences of drug misuse.
The exhibit was further transformed, updated, and renamed Drugs: Costs and Consequences in 2016. Today it includes hands-on interactives, artifacts, dioramas, and extensive panels and materials that closely examine the problems that illicit drugs cause for individuals, families, and communities. Hosting the exhibit gives the local DEA field division many opportunities to build and strengthen community relationships and awareness. The exhibit is factual, science-based, apolitical, and provides a powerful catalyst for community dialogue and action. Parents often say: "I didn’t know how to talk with my children about drugs, and our visit to the exhibit began the conversation."
As the DEA Museum staff ready the exhibit for its next venue, we are pleased to announce the addition of new content, improved accessibility, and timely resources. The exhibit will now include information in Spanish and new videos for children. Information about deadly fentanyl and counterfeit drugs has been added, and the Discovery Corner will feature updated materials and resources from many national partners and experts on drug use, misuse, treatment, and recovery.
“The exhibit provides a powerful message – that while the problem is daunting, we CAN be involved in a positive way, and we CAN provide hope to parents, educators, law enforcement, and prevention specialists,” said Wrzesinski.
For more information on the exhibit, visit www.drugexhibit.org.
