Meth and Cultural Politics.

• Author: Carrabine, Eamonn

METH WARS IS AN AMBITIOUS, WIDE-RANGING, AND PENETRATING cultural criminology of what Linnemann has termed the "methamphetamine imaginary" and is written in his inimitable style, with well-turned phrases, vivid imagery, and acute criticism adorning every page. He is careful to insist that "invoking the imaginary in no way suggests that the problems associated with drugs are not real and thus without consequence. Rather, imaginary describes important yet often-overlooked mediated dimensions of social life" (5, emphasis in original). Much of the book then is taken up with mapping it, and each of the six chapters focuses on a specific, significant site where meaning is constructed, contested, and exchanged. It takes seriously the idea that culture is not so much a set of things, but rather a process, a set of practices. Although he does not put it in these terms, and he may quarrel with them, I think the book offers a way of understanding meth as a representational system, using language, signs, and images that enable us to make sense of the world and the social relations in it.

The book deftly moves from the television screen to public service advertisements, from small-town policing to global narcopolitics, taking the reader on a grand tour around the major sites where the methamphetamine imaginary establishes itself. The book makes many contributions and I want to highlight just three: discourse, whiteness, and place. With respect to discourse, Linnemann innovatively develops Simon Hallsworth's (2013) distinction between gang talk and gang talkers to describe meth talk as the language, grammar, and free-floating discourse of meth talkers, who are far removed from the actual lived realities of meth production and consumption but are actively involved in methamphetamine control. Meth talkers are the police, educators, legislators, and researchers, among others, who position themselves as authorities in the business of treating, controlling, and punishing those involved in the meth industry. As such, the cultural work of meth talkers plays a crucial role in shaping the methamphetamine imaginary. The focus on language is important; by seeing meth as a representational system, the rules of communication can be critically exposed, and the book can be understood as a sustained attempt to demystify the mythologies of meth.

The book's second accomplishment is its sophisticated grasp of the politics of race and class. In particular, it pulls apart...