#methland

Sometimes you need a really, really depressing-yet-hopeful read of nonfiction before you can jump back into fiction, and this book was that shot in the arm for me.

The book is about the meth epidemic in America, not just in the big cities you'd hear about on major new channels, but in small towns as well, using Oelwein, Iowa as a case study.

One of the things you need when studying addiction this book has in spades, which is both the understanding that addiction can destroy lives, more than just the addicts, and that those who are addicted are likewise victims and need sympathy, both of which this book has. It starts off as just a question about why meth has invaded Small Town, USA, and gradually expands its scope over the course of the book to reveal the way corporations keep lobbying congress to maintain the system that results in meth addiction. From pharmaceutical companies preventing the DEA from tracking drugs that can be made into meth, to food industries engaging in human trafficking to acquire undocumented immigrants as cheap labor, to even corporations that may have nothing else wrong abandoning towns that rely heavily on the job opportunities. But it also manages to complicate the black-and-white nature without underselling it entirely.

I don't know of the veracity of this book, which I say because I've seen it's received some sharp criticism from an Iowan local. But as a layman, the book has a lot of typos, almost all of them separating composite words into its component parts; the town of Independence was repeatedly rendering as "In dependence", and many such similar errors occurred throughout.

Chapter 3 is titled: The Inland Empire, and focuses on Lori, a woman living in Ottumwa, Iowa, who got into dealing Methamphetamine after her brother in law dealt to her to help feed her addiction.  Lori’s Husband, Floyd, was an abusive alcoholic and wasn’t around often. However, Floyd’s brother did stop in to the cabin from time to time, because he was  a “Grim Reaper,” (a motorcycle club that her husband was part of), and he had gotten Lori hooked on “biker dope,” some Meth produced in a lab in Southern California. Floyd’s brother gave her a little bit to sell, and after giving some away to hook her potential customers, she realized that she was in a market to make millions of dollars, and soon she started selling more and more. After a few weeks, Lori was buying quarter pounds of meth for $2,500 and selling them for about $10,000. Six months later, Lori was $50,000 richer.

By 1987, Lori was a big time dealer, selling to other people who were building their own Methamphetamine franchises in other states like Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and of course Iowa. She was even dealing with a “Mexican mafia.” Soon, she was getting and selling P2P from southern California, P2P being the most powerful meth on the market. She was buying from Super Labs, having Floyd drive down to long beach to pick up up to 20 pounds of meth every 36 hours. By 1989 Lori owned a car dealership, 52 race horses, a 144 acre horse farm, and 14 houses to house all of her employees and to help launder her money. Her biggest and best idea though was the superlab she built under military tents in the hills of her horse farm. Her lab was the only super lab that was producing meth outside of California for almost 20 years.

What We Talk About When We Talk About God - Full of stories about Christianity, Science, faith (and questioning faith), etc. Even heathens can read theological books! Giving me a lot to think about along the lines of loving people rather than trying to change them.

Methland - A book about meth. 

And other completely random books that include an anthropological study of gypsies/travelers, classics, and one by Joan Rivers. Sounds about right. 

I really need to get back to my music, books, movies lists to keep a better record of these things, but for now I'm just going to try to finish one of the 10 books I'm reading. I might need to start adhering to a monthly or yearly theme to stay on track in some way. 

#1: Methland by Nick Reding

After watching the first few episodes of Breaking Bad and also travelling a little in small town America, I was very interested to find out a little bit more about the scourge of meth, and this book seemed excellently placed to help me out. It is a fairly short book which centres around the town of Oelwein, Iowa and its particular problems with meth. It is a good idea to structure the book like this - you can add some personal stories, explore different aspects of meth addiction and how it affects personal and community wellbeing, along with the economic causes of meth cooking and dealing.

The jobs some of the Oelweinians had before they gave up an honest life and took up meth cooking sounded awful:"Wearing fifty pounds of protective steel mesh, Lori had ten seconds to sever the cone, or bottom, of a twenty-five pound hog hind; remove the fat; heave the ham onto a conveyor belt above her head; and resharpen the knife before the next one reached her."  And the way they cooked the meth with no regard to anything else was nearly unbelievable. There was one story about a man called Major and his two year old son Buck which will stay with me for a while. Buck had the highest cell-follicle traces of meth ever recorded in state history, from Major's habit of increasing the yield of his meth by using a coffee filter in a microwave which he also used for heating Buck's bottle.