Book Review: Methamphetamine: A love story

• Date: 01 September 2018
• Author: Henry H. Brownstein
• Published date: 01 September 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567717727816
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Review

Book Review

Shukla, R. K. (2016).

Methamphetamine: A love story. Oakland: University of California Press. 244 pp. $29.95 (paperback), $85.00

(hardcover). ISBN 9780520291010.

Reviewed by: Henry H. Brownstein, PhD,CHBrownsteinLLC,Richmond,VA,USA

DOI: 10.1177/1057567717727816

Early in Methamphetamine: A Love Story, a book about the lives of methamphetamine users and

cooks, Rashi Shukla quotes one of the people she interviewed who said “nobody grows up and says,

you know what, I think I’m going to be an addict when I grow up” (p. 20). Statistics from a national

survey of households conducted under contract with the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health

Services Administration show that nationwide in a recent year more than 7 million people aged 12 or

older admitted that during the prior year, they were “dependent on or abused illicit drugs.” How

many people are addicted to drugs cannot be known with certainty, but over the years, there have

been many surveys and studies designed to estimate the incidence and prevalence of drug addiction.

Fewer studies have tried to understand the experience of those people who do abuse or misuse drugs

and what it means for their lives and their relationships with other people. In this book, Shukla does

just that.

Shukla tells the stories of the lives and experiences of people in Oklahoma for whom metham-

phetamine has been a way of life. Her presentation is a well-organized and moving exploration and

account of the lives of these people through whom she “describes the world of methamphetamine

from an insider’s perspective” (p. 10). Good qualitative work allows the researcher to tell the story of

the lives and experience of other people in a way that is both meaningful and trustworthy. It appears

that Shukla is a good qualitative interviewer who knows when to ask questions and when to listen

and how to make sense of what she is told. As a result, this book is not simply about methamphe-

tamine as a drug or methamphetamine production or distribution or even about public policy and

opinion with regard to methamphetamine. It is about people who have used and maybe cooked or

sold methamphetamine and how it lured and enticed them and drew them into a dark and tragic life.

As Shukla wrote, “The illusion of methamphetamine is that it gives you everything you’ve ever

wanted. The truth of the tragedy is that it takes everything you have” (p. 2).

The essence and strength of the book is found in the very informative substantive chapters in

which Shukla’s respondents get to tell their stories in their own words about everything from how

they found their way to methamphetamine and how they found their way out of the life. There are

chapters about how they became involved with dealing and manufacturing methamphetamine

and chapters about how the drug seduced them and how it became the love of their life. There are

chapters in which they tell about the risks of living with the drug and the darkness it brought to their

lives and the lives of people around them. And there is even a chapter through which they get to tell

their stories of life after methamphetamine.

The book is based on a 4-year study during which time Shukla identified, located, and inter-

viewed 33 people who were involved in the use and sometimes the manufacture and distribution of

International CriminalJustice Review

2018, Vol. 28(3) 277-278

ª2017 Georgia State University

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