Summary Of Methland The Death And Life Of An American Small Town

In contemporary society, most people have a preconceived notion of methamphetamine users as criminals, noting the illegal drug’s harmful effects on individuals' health and community impact as enough evidence for strict drug policies and laws. Moreover, popular media and educational systems often use specific language and ideas that perpetuate and reinforce stigmas surrounding individuals who use methamphetamine. When considering the ways in which the assigned texts and videos address methamphetamine usage and abuse, I choose to analyze how the messages put forth by Nick Reding in his book “Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town”, Dr. Carl Hart, a neuropharmacologist, in his interviews and presentations, as well as Director Darren

He gives insight into the lives of those battling methamphetamine addiction and how broader socio-economic factors contribute to methamphetamine usage. In chapter two of his book, Reding describes how “methamphetamine is synonymous with the kind of deranged behavior exemplified by Roland Jarvis (33),” a methamphetamine user and maker who had horrible hallucinations one night that led to him blowing up his own house and burning his skin off. As Reding highlights, the media often sensationalizes methamphetamine use and blames it for acts of “delusional violence, morbid depravity, extreme sexual perversion, and an almost otherworldly, hallucinogenic dimension of evil (33-34).” This sensationalizing and stigmatizing are certainly central to myths and stereotypes of methamphetamine users as crazy tweakers that are morally corrupt scumbags. As Reding further describes, Roland Jarvis turned to methamphetamine as a means of coping with the economic hardships and personal turmoil of his own life, which highlights the complexities of addiction and the social determinants of health that are usually not considered when representing methamphetamine