The alchemy of meth: a decomposition

Abstract

"This manuscript is based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork in rural Missouri between 2005-2013. Pine spent time with meth cooks, recovery professionals, pastors, and narcotics agents. At the center of this story are the meth cooks themselves, and Pine's ethnography details their daily struggles. Beginning in the center of an exploded meth lab, Pine's performative, narrative-based work explores meth cooks as modern-day alchemists, combining and exploding again the everyday objects of late capitalism, walking the fine lines (and obviously crossing them) between illegal and legal amphetamines, pulling everyday objects like lighter fluids, frying pans, and kitchen matches into the realm of illegality"--