Core-Gap thinking in Nick Reding's "Methland"

Noted by my cousin Paul (career "Mad Man").

The brief description of the book from Publisher's Weekly:

Using what he calls a "live-in reporting strategy," Reding's chronicle of a small-town crystal meth epidemic-about "the death of a way of life as much as... about the birth of a drug"-revolves around tiny Oelwein, Iowa, a 6,000-resident farming town nearly destroyed by the one-two punch of Big Agriculture modernization and skyrocketing meth production. Reding's wide cast of characters includes a family doctor, the man "in the best possible position from which to observe the meth phenomenon"; an addict who blew up his mother's house while cooking the stuff; and Lori Arnold (sister of actor Tom Arnold) who, as a teenager, built an extensive and wildly profitable crank empire in Ottumwa, Iowa (not once, but twice). Reding is at his best relating the bizarre, violent and disturbing stories from four years of research; heftier topics like big business and globalization, although fascinating, seem just out of Reding's weight class. A fascinating read for those with the stomach for it, Reding's unflinching look at a drug's rampage through the heartland stands out in an increasingly crowded field. 

The reference to "heftier topics" is explained in a reader review (Gaetan Lion):

"Fast Food Nation" meets "The Pentagon's New Map", September 28, 2009

This is a very good book that reads like a thriller. Reding, the author, covers the advent of meth throughout the rural Midwest through several related angles. 

First, he covers this topic by following the firsthand experience of several key individuals attempting to keep the social fabric of a small town (Oelwein) in the midst of a meth epidemic. These include the mayor, the main primary physician, the chief of police, and the local district attorney. Their narratives describe how desperate the situation is until two of them are able to turn things around (the chief of police by cracking down onmeth dealers and the mayor by raising financing to invest in a new commercial complex to generate jobs). Reding also follows the life of several meth addicts in various stages of either recovery or deterioration. 

Second, Reding studies the history of meth that was at first deemed a legitimate miraculous drug that could cure 33 different ailments ranging from weight gain to schizophrenia. In 1939, a Harvard sociologist warns about side effects including sexual aggression, violence, hallucination, and insomnia. His warnings are ignored as the drug is still used extensively during WWII to maintain the energy and focus of soldiers (on either side) during stressful sleepless nights. Also, medical records suggests Hitler was ameth addict which explains his madness. 

Third, Reding studies the biochemistry of meth. The attractiveness of meth is multi-dimensional. On one hand, it has the libido benefit of Viagra. On another, it has an antidepressant effect similar to Prozac. On another, it is the equivalent of a smart pill that gives you unparalleled mental focus. It is also like a caffeine booster giving you the ability to perform at top level without sleep. Overall, it provides an incredible feel-good feeling. This is because like many drugs it reduces the uptake of dopamine (the satisfaction hormone). But, unlike other drugs it actually squeezes dopamine out of presynaptic cells. The resulting unparalleled flow of dopamine through one's system triggers a feel-good feeling that even sex does not match. On the other hand, the long term side effects are really nasty. Those include bleeding skin-sores, internal organs shrunken from dehydration resulting in liver and kidney failure, weakened hearts and lungs, brains depleted of neurotransmitters. A person is literally falling apart from the inside. Also, it has all the already mentioned nasty behavioral side effects. Reding states there are thousand of stories about meth associated with hallucinogenic violence, morbid depravity, and extreme sexual perversion. Reding provides a few choice examples throughout the book. 

Fourth, Reding maps out the socioeconomic and policy factors associated with the meth epidemic that includes the convergeance of several forces: 
1) the advent of Big Pharma that lobbied to weaken any law regulating the import and sale of meth ingredients found in cold medicine;
2) Big Agriculture taking out small farms in the Midwest and employing a rising flow of low cost illegal Mexican immigrant workers. This part reads like Fast Food Nation; 
3) the emergence of the five major Mexican drug trafficking organizations (the DTOs) distributing their drugs using the same Mexican immigrants. By 2003, 85% of all illegal drugs sold in the U.S. whether meth, cocaine, heroin, were controlled by the five DTOs.; 
4) Globalization and NAFTA making border control between the U.S. and Mexico more challenging. 

Fifth, he leverages Thomas Barnett analytical framework described in The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-first Century. Where Barnett divides the World into two sets of countries, the functional ones that follow the Rule of Law (the core), and the rest consisting of failed states that live in chaos (the disconnected ones). Reding makes the connection that even within the core countries such as the U.S. there are expanding pockets of disconnected regions such as the Midwestern towns falling pray to meth. He adds that when small towns are vulnerable to social implosion, larger towns may not be far behind. As a proof, he tracks the route of the meth epidemic that reaches to the big cities such as New York and Los Angeles . . .

Needless to say, I'm intrigued.  Know such small-town life very intimately.  Also know what it's like to indulge in that venue and the reasons why such escape are so appealing (even if, life-wise, I felt like a tourist because all my older siblings had moved up and out and so I knew I would too).

Being able to extrapolate the continued pockets of Gap inside even the most advanced Core is a pronounced jump to graduate-level analysis of my stuff that a lot of cops, social workers, mayors, etc. instinctively make.  I know, because they've sought me out over the years.  I don't particularly develop it in the books; it's just there in a latent sense, and they fill in their own blanks better than I could.  

I will definitely seek out the next time I'm in a book store.  Naturally, I admire anybody who pulls thinking from other realms--the ultimate in horizontal thinking.  Examples are always to be coveted.