Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town

It is the only book I'm aware of that understands at a fundamental level meth isn't a drug problem, it is a symptom of our current societal and economic problems. The meth epidemic isn't about a drug, its about the economy, and so Reding's book is as much about the death of a way of life as the birth of a drug.For those looking for a Breaking Bad experience, or another drug-porn description of whacked-out meth addicts, this is not your book. Instead, Reding, after returning to his hometown of Oelwein, Iowa, chronicles the descent from a thriving agricultural-based economy into a desperate place where cheap, easy to obtain drugs like meth were just waiting to move in. Along the way Iowa's story parallels the changes in our broader national society and economy, focused here on Big Agra moving in, first destroying family farms and local meat packers, then replacing the workers in its new mega-facilities with cheap, disposable labor from south of the border. Such changes, whether wrought by Big Agra businesses, Chinese steel or Walmart, take away the life of the town but leave behind the people.Just like Big Agra destroyed a way of life in Iowa, Big Pharma profited off the remains. Reding details how the pharmaceutical industry spent heavily and lobbied successfully to not limit the import of pseudoephedrine into the U.S. The drug companies needed that chemical to be available and cheap for their cold medicines, and were without care that that same chemical, distilled out of those same cold medicines, fueled the meth epidemic. Hey, it was just business, a perfect metaphor for the rise of profit above all else, the leaving behind of the 99 percent.Reding touches on how easy the drug is to cook up in small batches, although a small mistake in the chemistry can result in horrific burns and explosions. Meth wasn’t a social drug, and so you didn’t need to hang around with old juicers in a dark bar. Meth came to you. Your friends were using it, if not selling it or cooking it, and the angry, speedo high it gave fit the young guys better. Meth wasn’t only for boys, either. Girls liked it too, and because you never thought about eating on a meth cruise, they called it the Jenny Crank diet.As part of research leading to my upcoming book, Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99Percent, I spent some time in the Rust Belt of the Midwest, where meth is as popular as in Iowa, and for the same reasons. Reding's descriptions and conclusion ring true.But most importantly, meth just isn't cheap and easy, it is a Midwest drug. Instead of the flighty high of weed or the dulled feeling of alcohol, meth at first offers a powerful feeling of self-worth, of energy, that is the perfect antidote for the crushing depression and lack of hope the space around the user represents. For a world stuck in crap, meth was the answer. This was a drug designed for unemployed people with poor self-images and no confidence. Of course the drug is a false front, as users quickly suffer from the debilitating health problems we are all familiar with. But that's a tomorrow kind of problem, and the lost users in Iowa and elsewhere know they have no tomorrow anyway.Criticisms of the book are few. Reding includes far too much information on the personal lives of the few good people in town trying to better things, and about himself. These do little to support the central ideas and often detour the narrative. The book tries perhaps too hard to end on a positive note, focusing on the progress made but losing sight of how little winning one battle in rural Iowa means in the larger war for our America.But don't let those points stop you from looking into this book. Skim the filler and focus on the important point: People without jobs, without hope, without tomorrows, will turn to things like meth to ease the pain. It's human nature. As Reding writes, rock bottom is not a foundation to build on. And unless we as a nation figure out a better way forward-- jobs that pay a living wage for more Americans, the reining in of big interests that rip apart the fabric of the nation around them-- methland will be our land. We can't fix America's meth problem without fixing America.

The heartland of America has been decimated over the years. Done in by Big Agriculture and, ultimately, Big Pharma, which was a lethal combination that drove people away from small rural towns, leaving poverty and devastation in their wake. This killed off a way of life for those left behind. It was quickly replaced by the use of methamphetamine or “meth” and the ensuing proliferation of meth labs. This book documents and attempts to explain this transition through the experience of one such town, Oelwein, Iowa.First, I would like to salute the true hero of this story, Oelwein mayor at the time, Larry Murphy, who took a stand, despite the odds against it, that somewhat succeeded in putting Humpty Dumpty back together. Still, the story of how Oelwein got to rock bottom and its ensuing meth epidemic is the story of many a small town in the heartland of America. Meth is a scourge, and it is one that is again on the rise with meth labs once again proliferating. It is not just opioids that are decimating America.This book is not an easy read by any means, as the author attempts to bring together and analyze the many forces at work that have brought America’s heartland to this point. There are many contributory factors to the meth debacle, including the ease with which Americans themselves create a market by their seemingly insatiable desire for drugs.

Author Nick Reding notes that if you search on terms like "meth capital of the world" or "ground zero for the meth epidemic," you'll find those appellations applied to various locales throughout the United States. So, it would be easy to write a drive-by account of meth's impact across the country. What's not so easy is to identify and focus in on one small, representative community and describe meth's impact and that community's transformation...and, along the way to forge lasting, material relationships with the individuals at the vortex of the story: the town's mayor; its assistant prosecutor; and the local general practitioner (MD). That's what Nick Reding has done with the town of Oelwein, IA, and with his story's protagonists, Mayor Larry Murphy (who Reding rightly hails in his Acknowledgments as "what a hero looks and acts like"), prosecutor Nathan Lein and GP Clay Hallberg. That Reding can produce a warts-and-all depiction of Oelwein - and of these three men - and that you can see Nathan Lein's positive spotlight review on these pages...well, that tells you all you need to know about Reding's integrity, the value he places on friendship, and the veracity of his reporting.This book has some added resonance for me: as an IT professional, I've helped put in systems designed to ensure compliance to the Combat Meth Act. Reding does a good job detailing the unintended consequences of that and other legislation. He also makes note of various other missed opportunities to catch the spread of meth early on. The biggest causes of those misses? It wasn't Drug Trafficking Organizations ('DTOs') or other nefarious elements; rather, it's assiduous lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry.

Great book about the great 'white' drug epidemic. Unlike crack, for which the response was to building endless new prisons, Meth is being treated or ignored. And the amazing thing is that this new epidemic is destroying more communities and lives than crack ever did.

An excellent book, thought provoking look at the effects of drugs and the war against them.

Great book. Full of insights and information about the plague of drug addiction in the mid-west. The book includes some wonderful stories about people impacted by meth... not long dreary stories but insightful and often ironic tales of ordinary people caught up in addictions.

Very applauding that USA can’t stop the urge for consumers to take this drug and stop the production and importation!