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One-line summary: Meth is bad! Really, really bad! And agribusiness and globalism caused the meth epidemic.
That's a not-entirely-accurate summary of the author's premise, but it's pretty close. This was an interesting book with a concise history of methamphetamine, from its invention by a Japanese chemist in the 19th century to its legal and popular prescription as a cure for everything in the early 20th century, and later as a way to enable factory workers to work double shifts, truck drivers to drive all night, and make depressed housewives happy, to its current incarnation as the WORST DRUG EVER ZOMG!!! IT EATS YOUR BRAIN AND TURNS YOU INTO A TWEAKING PSYCHOPATHIC AXE-MURDERER WHO WILL RUN THROUGH THE STREETS LAUGHING WITH YOUR SKIN ON FIRE AND FUNDS ORGANIZED CRIME AND TERRORISTS and say, haven't we heard all this before?
More below the cut.
( Meth is bad. Don't do meth. )
Verdict: An interesting book about how crystal meth became America's most feared drug, but not comprehensive or analytical enough, in my opinion. That said, Reding's writing style is better than you find in most journalistic non-fiction, and his interactions with a variety of people from judges and doctors to neo-Nazi methheads add interest and are anything but dry.
That's a not-entirely-accurate summary of the author's premise, but it's pretty close. This was an interesting book with a concise history of methamphetamine, from its invention by a Japanese chemist in the 19th century to its legal and popular prescription as a cure for everything in the early 20th century, and later as a way to enable factory workers to work double shifts, truck drivers to drive all night, and make depressed housewives happy, to its current incarnation as the WORST DRUG EVER ZOMG!!! IT EATS YOUR BRAIN AND TURNS YOU INTO A TWEAKING PSYCHOPATHIC AXE-MURDERER WHO WILL RUN THROUGH THE STREETS LAUGHING WITH YOUR SKIN ON FIRE AND FUNDS ORGANIZED CRIME AND TERRORISTS and say, haven't we heard all this before?
More below the cut.
( Meth is bad. Don't do meth. )
Verdict: An interesting book about how crystal meth became America's most feared drug, but not comprehensive or analytical enough, in my opinion. That said, Reding's writing style is better than you find in most journalistic non-fiction, and his interactions with a variety of people from judges and doctors to neo-Nazi methheads add interest and are anything but dry.
