{"product_id":"the-alchemy-of-meth-jason-pine-9781517907709","title":"The Alchemy of Meth: A Decomposition","description":"\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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jason Pine\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1517907705\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781517907709\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Minnesota Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/01\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 200\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.95lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.60h x 5.60w x 0.80d","brand":"Jason Pine","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48088508367103,"sku":"9781517907709","price":76.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_349a7e8f-3bf3-4333-aaad-6d50cf630043.jpg?v=1769105156","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-alchemy-of-meth-jason-pine-9781517907709","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}