Before viewing "The Meth Epidemic" on Front Line, you could imagine what the scares and the tragedies would be like from the stories to come. However you would be shocked to find the severity of such tragedies and their effect on society on a timeline of the mid 70's to the 2000's. Along the way you can also make note of how the dangers of methamphetamine affect the culture, demographic, geography, politics and economics in the United States. This story expose meth extensively in all of those major topics that come up in what is called the Making Of The Modern World.
The geographical area that affects the meth craze starts on the west coast specifically in Portland Oregon. Notably, the state of Oregon gets hit the hardest with the effect of this drug and research shows that 85% of property crimes in Oregon were due to the use of meth. Police officers in "booking" noticed a trend of users coming in and out. They also recognized throughout the months/years that the faces and physical appearance of users being arrested changed dramatically. Some adding more than 20 years of aging to their appearance, with sagging skin the face, rashes and scarring. This discovery brought about researchers and reporters like Steve Suo of the Oregonian newspaper making several interesting discoveries. This investigation and story was ongoing throughout the years and their discoveries helped break down the threats of the drug.
In a way meth users don't come from a specific or common culture, but as they fall victim of the drugs aftermath they share severe changes to their lifestyle. Their brains are being ruined by this drug and the ways their mind works or lack there of makes meth the most addicting drug of all. The culture that comes with being a user of methamphetamine or Crystal Meth points in the direction of crime, domestic violence, and families being split up. More common than you'd think, 50% of foster care children are there because at least one of their parents abuses the drug. In one specific case a young girl witnessed her parents having sexual encounters with each other and with other adults, her father would also abuse her mother and they would trip for days. She spoke of a time her father forced her to learn how to cook up the methamphetamine in their house exposing the young girl to deathly chemicals as well as forcing her to taste the finished product.
Along with the culture surrounding the use of meth is the demographic it targets. This is shockingly not something found in every major city around the country, while Portland is large it doesn't have the population of other major cities. Looking more closely at the ages and races of people doing the drug, the trend seems to be white males and females in there 20's and 40's. These users are multiple time offenders who literally fry their brains from extensive use. The drug sets of dopamine which is the rewarding part of the brain over little time, that part of the brain becomes the driving force for fulfillment, and more meth is needed to satisfy the brain.
There was an interesting discovery made by Steve Suo that the numbers of meth users checking into and out of rehab centers increased and decreased dramatically over the years. He then wondered why this was happening. His discoveries showed that the purity of meth throughout the years had changed dramatically, based on the availability of affedrine, the key ingredient in the drug. Battling laws and crackdowns the drug lords have had to find new lewpoles to get their hands on large quantities of this drug. Doing this takes time and that is why we see the up and down scale model, when the drugs on the streets are pure more people are addicted and need help, when they are bad people are less likely to get addicted and do not seek the help.
Affedrine is a drug that is legally used in the making of sudafedrine, a common sinus relief medicine that for years was unregulated. When U.S. legislature made the distribution of the affedrine to non-legitimate buyers the people who cook up the meth bought hundreds of these boxes and broke them down to make Crystal Meth. While this drug is now spreading easily from the west coast to the east coast, this trend is becoming noticeable and the politicians make it so a person can only purchase the drug 3 boxes at a time and was moved off the shelves and behind the counter. This worked for a while, moving the line on the chart again lower and lower until the meth labs would hire people to go into the every drug store in the area and buy the maximum amount of pills until they had enough to cook up. Now, with the biggest decrease in meth use in history in Oregon, the drug has been moved to a prescription drug only. This is a very obvious move for the rest of the country to follow in years to come and would have been done early if it weren't for the major pharmaceutical companies fighting it.
This fight to keep the sudafedrine drug on the shelves was all about the money that the pharmaceutical companies made from this. Economics has everything to do with major moves made like this in our country, even if it is at the cost of millions of lives. The Amezcore brothers had an illegal operation going in Mexico that imported 100's of tons of affedrine a year and made them 2 billion a year all without the DEA's knowledge. Now that the laws have been put in place to stop these practices, the scarcity of the drug and the purity of the meth has gone down dramatically.
After viewing "The Meth Epidemic" on Front Line, I have an in depth look at meth use and how it affects not only the physical appearance of someone but the mental state as well. This drug as it stands has the ability to be extinct because it strictly comes from chemicals, it can not be grown. If the government keeps advancing on the crack down of meth production and use they will succeed in eliminating the most dangerous drug on the market.
The Meth Epidemic- Front Line documentary.
3 components worth 5 points each. Summary, Analysis (economics, politics, culture, geography, demography), Structure (Introduction, Body, Conclusion, Bibliography).
ReplyDeleteComments:
Economics: meth, from mom and pop "stores" to a big business?
Geography: spread of meth? What other nations are having meth problems?
Politics: Meth and crime?
Culture: why do people do drugs?
There are several ways meth impacts the economy, geography, politics and culture and it is important to expose what cause and affect this drug can have on them. Here in the United States and in foreign countries we see the impact that methamphetamine has on these specific aspects of life.
ReplyDeletesurprisingly a great deal of today's meth does come from "mom and pop" stores in a sense. As mentioned people will be sent into drug stores to purchase the greatest amount aloud of the nasal drug sudafed. This drug is broken down and then added to other dangerous chemicals that are as the experts here say "have no business being put together" and then made into meth. However this is not the mass market and this process takes a long time. Small and often times mobile "factories will be used to cook the drugs up this way and then they are distributed.
The spread of meth in the U.S. began in Oregon and spread out like a ripple in the water but was slow to reach the east coast. However the U.S. is not the only country to be effected by this drug. Some of the greatest note worthy countries are Mexico, North Korea and France. France is a large producer of the affedrine that goes into the sudafed and have made large illegitimate sales of the drug to buyers in foreign countries. Mexico is a place where meth is created on a large scale by drug cartels and that makes it not only hurt them but the U.S. as well. In recent years North Koreans have noted that the numbers of users there are growing tremendously.
The legality of meth has never been in question, however the drug affedrine has been lousily regulated at drug stores and the legality of that has been in question. It has often been said that the drug should be only used as prescribed by the doctor and should be pulled of the shelve, stopping meth makers easy access. As you can imagine using their political power to manipulate the government, pharmaceutical companies have fought this successfully tooth and nail. It is also noteworthy that with a need to get high, meth users will do whatever it takes. Theft and domestic violence are most common amongst meth users and the number of meth related crimes is very high for these major cities affected.
The million dollar question, why do people do drugs? While there is no definite complete answer, for the most part its the need of belonging to something or group of people. The same thought process can be applied to people who spend thousands on designer clothing to fit in with a certain group. A common misconception is that all drug users are poor and scummy visa versa, but that is simply not true. Drugs like meth are used by all different kinds of people rich and poor. Paying reference to the film "American Psycho" where the main character (Christian Bale) is a rich investment banker and uses cocaine to fit in with his employees who he has become obsessed over being like. That being an example of why wealthy people might use drugs we have to look at why impoverished people use drugs. Often times, poor people will use the excuse that it is expected of them to do drugs anyways so they might as well because people are going to judge them either way. Another reason they might do it is to feel that temporary high that allows them to escape from their life.
With methamphetamine having such a large impact on the major topics in today's modern discussion, it is interesting to track the chain of cause and affect the drug has in our society. Truly being the most dangerous drug, we have to ask how much more time will be spent and how many more victims will fall to the use of this drug. And from a political stand point, do we need this drug and drugs alike to succeed? Could there be an America without illegal drugs?
The Meth Epidemic- Front Line