Methland 1

This semester, I am reading Methland by Nick Redding. I was wanting to read a book about marijuana in the United Stated but decided that Methland  would offer information about something I knew very little about. As the title suggests, Methland investigates the horrible power of methamphetamine in rural America. Specifically, Oelwien, Iowa.

I knew meth was a horribly addictive drug. I knew that meth could be made at home. I also knew that meth would destroy your mouth due to the glass pipes used to smoke meth. Other than that, I didn't know very much about meth. I decided to do some research about meth and watched some YouTube videos about meth. I learned that meth can be produced from any over-the-counter cold medicine.The ingredient in cold medicine that makes meth is psuedoephendrine. Federal law states that each person can only get about  9 grams (about 7 packs of cold medicine) each month. The meth producers will gather as much cold medicine as they can in a process called "smurfing". They gather as much as they can and then pool together their purchases. Sometimes they will steal. Others will pay other people to go and buy their limit in cold medicine.

The first section of reading revealed that meth was the #1 "feel good" drug. Redding explain that "the truly singular aspect of meth's attractiveness is that since its first wide-scale abuse--among soldiers during World War II--meth has been associated with hard work…crank has been the choice of the American working class." (16). It is pitiful to think that in the land of opportunity people need to resort to such damaging measures to get by.

Roland Jarvis, Oelwein's very own meth superstar is famous for blowing up his mothers house when a cook went bad. He lit a cigarette after pouring two gallons of hydrochloric acid down the drain in the floor. He then had turned his basement into a vacuum and it ignited. To me, what happens next is most powerful. "Jarvis looked down and saw what he though was egg white on his bare arms. It was not egg white; it was the vicious state of his skin not that the water had boiled out of it." (42). Jarvis was able to flick the chunk of skin off himself and didn't think anything of it. When the fire entire Oelwein Fire Department showed up, he begged for somebody to shoot him.

 Jeffrey Rohrick blew up his mothers basement while cooking meth.

If that's not bad, I don't know what is. Oelwien suffers from a meth epidemic and I look forward to see what comes of the town. Redding mentions that towns similar to Oelwien have disappeared over time.