Methland 5

Methland ends with Major, the former member of the Sons of Silence, the father of Buck, and the man living with his parents. He had been sober for a while, but he felt like his life wasn't right. The same with Oelwein's doctor, Clay Hallberg. After Hallberg had become sober, he felt like his life was empty. He noticed that his marriage of twenty years had died during his alcoholism. And he noticed that his body was feeling the wrath from years of drunkenness. Major went to a bar one night and had seen a friend of his from high school. She revealed to Major that she had a long-lived crush on him. Elated and drunk, Major reconnects with his friend. He has to force himself home, in fear of being caught by the cops because it would constitute a violation of his probation. He begins to walk home and as he does, the withdrawal from meth overwhelms him. He finds himself wishing the police would find him. He is puking under a tree with a reprise of paranoia that had left him since he became sober. 

There is not one good thing about meth. Not one! We are unable to control it. It comes from foreign countries in huge quantities. A user could start making the meth themselves. The ephedrine that comes from the cold medicines used to make meth will always be protected by the large pharmaceutical companies. Even with restrictions, it is impossible to control. If a person does chose to make a meth lab, there is a never ending list of things that can go wrong. 

 A meth user becomes physically dependent. Meth releases 6 times the regular amount of dopamine that the body can do on it's own. Then someone who does meth becomes dependent on it. While their dependency on it, their health declines. They need more and more crank to get the same high. They are effectively killing themselves. While high, a user may not need to eat or sleep for ridiculous amounts of time, sometimes around 16 hours. When the high begins to fade, they do more and the cycle starts over again. Users also become paranoid and hallucinate. It's not my cup of tea. 

I decided to do some research on the critique of Methland  and found something rather surprising. Many Oelwein, Iowa citizens aren't happy with the book and says that Reding has exaggerated the truth about Oelwein. Here's a link to the article:

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/51041562.html?refer=y

Nick Reding