Methland by Nick Reding

Crystal Methamphetamine has become a pop culture staple - Law and Order episodes are based on it, Third Eye Blind sings about it, and it often makes the evening news.  Last year I watched an HBO documentary on how badly meth had hurt the town of Brocton, MA, just 20 miles from where I live.  So when I noticed Reding's book on meth and its impact on a small town in Iowa, I was interested to read it.

Reding spent several years in different small town to form an opinion of exactly how lethal meth is to people, families, and communities.  This anthropological take on meth was interesting and devastating to read.  He included stories of people so desperate to get the drug or the ingredients that they would do terrible things.  He also included stories of people hallucinating on the drug who would ruin their lives during trips.  I came away from reading this book believing that meth is the most dangerous and ruinous drug in America.

In Olewin, Iowa in particular, the woman most responsible for bringing meth to the town is - oddly - comedian Tom Arnold's sister Lori.  From her story, Reding details the different ways meth has gotten into small towns, both through local labs, importing it from Mexico, or driving it from its most common source, southern California. 

What I also enjoyed about the book was the science  - how it impacts brain receptors - and history - how it was legally prescribed to mothers and soliders through the '80's - that he included also.  Reding also spends a significant section in the middle of the book detailing the politics around what could have been done to slow its distribution (limiting pseudophedrine production or distribution) and how that was not done for many years (because of the pharmaceutical lobby). 

The final theme of the book was around the connection between meth and economically depressed small towns in middle America.  One point he makes is that with economic troubles around agriculture in the Midwest, meth is a way for people to stay awake and work multiple jobs.  He also makes the case that as big agricultural conglomerates take jobs away from small-town America, the people in those towns turn to meth because there is little else to do to occupy their time or make any money.  While some of his conclusions seemed a little weak to me, the book also made me think of In Defense of Food and Pollan's conclusions around how our agricultural system was impacting small towns. 

Overall, I learned a lot reading this book.  I thought the writing could have been better edited in some places, and I also would have liked to see more focus in other areas.  But I would recommend it as an introduction to the difficulties in much of America around this devastatingly addictive drug.