{"product_id":"the-alchemy-of-meth-a-decomposition-paperback","title":"The Alchemy of Meth: A Decomposition - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJason Pine\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMeth cooks practice late industrial alchemy--transforming base materials, like lithium batteries and camping fuel, into gold\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Meth alchemists all over the United States tap the occulted potencies of industrial chemical and big pharma products to try to cure the ills of precarious living: underemployment, insecurity, and the feeling of idleness. Meth fires up your attention and makes repetitive tasks pleasurable, whether it's factory work or tinkering at home. Users are awake for days and feel exuberant and invincible. In one person's words, they \"get more life.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Alchemy of Meth\u003c\/i\u003e is a nonfiction storybook about St. Jude County, Missouri, a place in decomposition, where the toxic inheritance of deindustrialization meets the violent hope of this drug-making cottage industry. Jason Pine bases the book on fieldwork among meth cooks, recovery professionals, pastors, public defenders, narcotics agents, and pharmaceutical executives. Here, St. Jude is not reduced to its meth problem but Pine looks at meth through materials, landscapes, and institutions: the sprawling context that makes methlabs possible. \u003ci\u003eThe Alchemy of Meth\u003c\/i\u003e connects DIY methlabs to big pharma's superlabs, illicit speed to the legalized speed sold as ADHD medication, uniquely implicating the author's own story in the narrative. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy the end of the book, the backdrop of St. Jude becomes the foreground. It could be a story about life and work \u003ci\u003eanywhere\u003c\/i\u003e in the United States, where it seems no one is truly clean and all are complicit in the exploitation of their precious resources in exchange for a livable present--or even the hope of a future.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJason Pine is professor of anthropology and media studies at Purchase College, State University of New York. He is author of \u003ci\u003eThe Art of Making Do in Naples\u003c\/i\u003e (Minnesota, 2012).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 200\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.7 x 8.3 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e November 05, 2019\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51771793932576,"sku":"9781517907716","price":21.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/94ea05f3b555d5e107537a4938b03aaf.webp?v=1780393630","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/the-alchemy-of-meth-a-decomposition-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}