Product Description

Methamphetamine: the quintessential American drug. American housewives, heads of state, businessmen and poets alike have acquired a taste for the yellow, crystalline powder. Everyone from Hitler to President Kennedy to Elvis to Jack Kerouac indulged in one of its many forms, and its presence has been an invisible hand shaping events, preparing the ground for the strangest drug epidemic the world has ever seen. Today methamphetamine is everywhere, and there seems to be no way of stemming its growth.

It is the backbone of Ritalin and the “club drugs” Ecstasy, Eve and Cat. According to the DEA statistics, approximately four percent of all Americans have used clandestinely manufactured methamphetamine. In the 1960s and 1970s millions of mainstream Americans used and abused prescription amphetamines; today, anyone with a stovetop, a beaker, and a little know-how can make its derivative, methamphetamine, with chemicals purchased at the hardware store and pharmacy down the street.

American Meth is the unprecedented story of a molecule in all of its incarnations, and the deep but little-known impact it has had on American life over the course of the last century. Told from the viewpoint of author Sterling Braswell, whose life has been touched by the drug, American Meth is a deeply personal drama that illuminates the epidemic we live with today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #447165 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 168 pages

About the Author
Sterling Braswell graduated from Texas A&M in 1987 and went on to work as a technical and strategy consultant for Microsoft. He has spent the last four years researching and writing on the methamphetamine phenomenon, and examining the circumstances through which it has touched his life. He lives in Houston with his son, Spencer.

Customer Reviews

Shocking and informative!
American Meth is the first complete and compelling documentary that I've found of the Meth epidemic. This should be required reading for all students and parents as this drug, and it's life-ruining effects, have become common-place in every type of community in the US. I first started researching Meth when "tweakers" were appearing all over Dallas and my small Texas hometown. People I knew from good families were losing their health and their sanity while they became slaves to this nasty yellow crystal. I'm thrilled to find a book that explains the spread of this "disease" and illustrates it's horrible impact with Mr. Braswell's fascinating personal accounts.

The real truth about drug abuse in America
Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (5/06)

Sterling Braswell has written a fascinating book about drug use in America. He begins with the history of amphetamines. It has been used almost 100 years. Meth was used in the 1920's to treat asthma, hay fever and depression. At this time it was legal and did not
carry a social stigma. Amphetamines were used in the military because it was believed to enhance intellectual performance and incite aggression.

Hitler was injected with it. Kamikaze pilots were injected with it before they went out on their suicide missions. JFK used it combined with steroids to treat Addison's disease. It was attributed to contributing to his abnormally high sex drive. Today meth abusers come from all walks of life: students, soldiers, workers, housewives.

The damage caused by meth use is insidious. Dopamine nerve terminals are damaged to the point that they put people at risk for developing Parkinson's as they get older. Some of the damage is permanent, and some can last up to three years after the use ends. Meth use triggers apoptosis which causes widespread cell death in several areas of the brain. The brain is affected in ways similar to the damage caused by Alzheimer's and strokes. The abuser's personality is also affected. They become paranoid, delusional and violent. Braswell refers to their reality as "Crazy Town." This becomes the user's world.

In this book, Braswell also includes his own personal story of the hell that he went through while he was married to Lucille, an addict. Lucille was unable to overcome her addiction and as a result of her meth addicted actions, she nearly destroyed Braswell. As I read his personal story, I kept hoping that their lives would improve and that Lucille would be able to overcome her addictions. Instead she betrayed him and his family in every way possible.

The history of methamphetamines and other related drugs is covered in great depth. "American Meth" would be very helpful for substance abuse counselors and people in recovery. For my Master's degree program in Rehabilitation Counseling, I did not have any texts that covered the history so deeply.

I think that it is important for people who believe that drugs should be legalized should read "American Meth." Crime is not just committed by people trying to get money for a fix, horrible crimes are committed by people who are under the influence of this drug. Families are destroyed.

A great mix of anecdotal information and research
What an interesting format. Mr. Braswell alternates chapters of his own life and the history of methamphetamine. It works very well. We get a glimpse into the life and trials of someone that could just as easily have been us.