Nick Reding, “Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town” (Bloomsbury, 2009)

New Books in Drugs, Addiction and Recovery · Aug 14, 2009 · 1h 6m

In 1980 I left Kansas to go to college in Iowa. A lot of things caught my attention about Iowa, for example, that the people really are very nice. I also noticed that there were a lot of drugs. One of them was “crystal methamphetamine,” or “crystal meth” for short. I’d never heard of it before (which is not surprising), but I quickly learned that, while not as fashionable as coke, it was inexpensive and widely available. Lots of people did it. It made them feel good. I left Iowa in 1984 for California, and with it any thought of crystal meth.

“Crank,” however, remained, ever ready to make…