“No legal industry could, like meth, claim 1,000 percent increases in production and sales in the four years between 1998 and 2002, a period in which corn prices remained flat and beef prices actually fell. Farmers, desperate to avoid foreclosure on their land, sold anhydrous ammonia (a common fertilizer) to meth cooks to make the drug. Others simply quit farming and went into the small-scale meth-manufacturing business.” The preceding statements from Reding highlight the problem of drug addiction that most Americans have grappled with for the past decades. The book documents a history of habitual drug abuse within a small community that has reduced to nothingness due to misuse, abuse and subsequent addiction to methamphetamine.
Summary of Context
Reding’s book resonates well with the current methamphetamine addiction and illegal commercial production that continue to infiltrate most of the US community neighborhoods. Invariably, the drug menace is further exacerbated by America’s porous borders where immigrants coming from Mexico carry contraband methamphetamine into the US territory (Gonzales, Rachel, Larissa Mooney, and Rawson 385). Similarly, Reding somehow attributes the meth addiction in Oelwein as worsened by the influx of immigrants into the city in search of new jobs, a fact that undeniably resonates with the current state of affairs in the modern American society. According to Reding’s book, small-town residents in the US touches on a problem often associated with the ghettos, the life of crime, drugs and violence but the journalist, Nick Reding manages to successfully highlight the existing fallacies and myths surrounding the carnage of methamphetamine abuse going back three decades ago. Therefore, the thesis of the paper is founded on the background of the meth problem and which the paper will seek to explore so as to recommend the mitigating measures to remedy the situation.
Consequences of Methamphetamine Abuse
The methamphetamine menace is embodied by the tale of Roland Jarvis who had been on meth and had endured its horrifying consequences. Roland exemplified the drug’s ravages as it is established he began meth indulgence as means to energize himself when he worked double shifts a local meat manufacturing factory. It emerged that using meth as an energy booster was nothing unusual in Oelwein as a community physician routinely recommended meth for fatigued factory workers. As Roland’s struggle with meth addiction progressed to high dependency, he became a habitual user and finally a manufacturer of methamphetamine.
Roland’s reliance on meth escalated to a point of drug induced paranoia where he would unconsciously attempt risky experiments in his lab. During one of his drug-influenced fits, he disastrously tried with little successes to dispose of his meth cocking chemicals only to start a fire which made him sustain severe burns on his body that paramedics could only watch as his flesh melted from his body. Jarvis therefore epitomizes a society whose manpower is ravaged by the afflictions of the meth addiction which consequently takes a toll on the Oelwein community.
Methland represents a society at cultural crossroads and which is already accustomed to the American society while highlighting the inalienable truth that not every society lives the American dream but a massively flawed community of failed institutions and aspirations. The sorry state of meth addiction as recounted by Reding in his book “Methland” highlights the vagaries of life characterized by poor wages, a dwindling economy and high cost of living. Gonzales et al. (388) ultimately suggest that subsequent abuse of methamphetamine is therefore seen as the most potent alternative to assuage the miseries that the Oelwein community is undergoing.
Reding’s use of other secondary characters continues to highlight the struggle of the people even though attempts are made by others like Nathan Lein and Dr. Clay Hallberg to make the society a better place to live. For Nathan Lein, a county prosecutor and having been brought up by a farming father understands the effects methamphetamine abuse and addiction has on agricultural production for a sustainable community. Nathan therefore fresh from his academic persuasions comes back to the Oelwein community with a focused mandate of transforming the community through a mass cleanup of the meth problem. Though he shows total commitment to eradicating the burden of methamphetamine addiction, Nathan cannot singlehandedly bring the desired changes or make a meaningful impact without the support of the community. The same can be said of Dr. Clay who had emerged as the leading physician in Oelwein and had made great effort to ensure that the society undergoes transformative changes though will little success.
Conclusion
Towards the end of Reding’s book, we realize that no situation can remain unchanged forever provided a little effort is invested towards obtaining a meaningful and significant change in the struggle to eliminate drug dependency, reduce its abuse and the possibilities of addiction. Drug dependency has been highlighted as having adverse consequences to the society, its inhabitants and the economy as a population extremely reliant on methamphetamine not only become unproductive but also dangerous to other people due to their addiction problems (Gonzales et al. 392). The polarizing nature of meth addiction and its consequences can only be prevented when the society exercises zero tolerance on its manufacture, possession, distribution and its ultimate consumption.
Works Cited
Gonzales, Rachel, Larissa Mooney, and Richard A. Rawson. "The methamphetamine problem in the United States." Annual review of public health 31 (2010): 385-398.
