How the War on Drugs is maintained through racism,authority and public opinion. From the hit television series Breaking Bad, to daily news reports, anti-drug advertising campaigns and highly publicized world-wide hunts for “narcoterrorists” such as Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the drug, methamphetamine occupies a unique and important space in the public’s imagination. In Meth Wars, Travis Linnemann situates the "meth epidemic" within the broader culture and politics of drug control and mass incarceration. Linnemann draws together a range of examples and critical interdisciplinary scholarship to show how methamphetamine, and the drug war more generally, are part of a larger governing strategy that animates the politics of fear and insecurity and links seemingly unrelated concerns such as environmental dangers, the politics of immigration and national security, policing tactics, and terrorism. The author’s unique analysis presents a compelling case for how the supposed “meth epidemic” allows politicians, small town police and government counter-narcotics agents to engage in a singular policing project in service to the broader economic and geostrategic interests of the United States.

In 1993, the San Bernardino Valley became ground zero for a plethora of torture and murder. The Satanic Underground proclaimed war on the independent meth cooks and their associates, reclaiming their rightful place as the sole manufacturers of high-powered methamphetamine distributed and sold to the drug populace, turning human beings into soulless ghouls of the night that would do anything to satisfy their craving for the devil’s drug.

It was March 18, 1944. Aimo Koivunen, the Finnish soldier was on patrol with his troop. The winter was at its peak and the squad was skiing through the snowy mountains. As Aimo was weary, he picked his drug bottle and took the pills. Since he was wearing mitts, and they were in a hurry to escape from the Red Army, he swallowed the entire set of Pervitin. He took 30 tablets and got overdosed where he was supposed to take one. The use of drugs in war is not a new thing. In the Second World War, the Germans employed methamphetamine to enhance their strength and capacity to resist in the battle. Speed was popular and available just like biscuits in the market. However, the meth-fuelled soldier loses his senses. Aimo and his troop escaped from their enemy army, but Aimo did not get back to his senses. He was hallucinating and delusions were affecting him. The team tried to get Aimo, but he was a threat to them as well. They feared that he might attack them. Finally, he was left alone in the woods. Aimo’s rest of the days in the forest was miserable. He could not distinguish the real and unreal things. He fought imaginary attacks and was injured from the mines. Without food and no ammunition, Aimo continued his skiing and finally stayed there as his left leg was severely injured. Finally, he caught the attention of a pilot circling above him and a team rescued him. The effect of the drug indeed helped him survive.

In 1993, the San Bernardino Valley became ground zero for a plethora of torture and murder. The Satanic Underground proclaimed war on the independent meth cooks and their associates, reclaiming their rightful place as the sole manufacturers of high-powered methamphetamine distributed and sold to the drug populace, turning human beings into soulless ghouls of the night that would do anything to satisfy their craving for the devil's drug.

With a combination of thorough investigative journalism, daring fieldwork, and colorful atmospheric sketches, Teun Voeten draws a very detailed and disturbing picture of a drug that is on a rapid international rise. Methamphetamine, commonly referred to as crystal meth, is one of the most addictive drugs in the world. Heavy users can destroy themselves in just a few months. Originally given by the Nazis to their troops to fight the blitzkrieg, it has now conquered the whole world and is used at sex parties in Amsterdam and Antwerp, by former hippies in Prague, by the underclass in the slums of Harare, Cape Town, and Peshawar, by truck drivers in Thailand, and by workers in the sweatshops in Bangladesh. Researcher Teun Voeten traveled the globe for two years to investigate all sides of this diabolic drug, exploring the bizarre history and pharmacological effects. He talked to homeless addicts in Tijuana and Los Angeles, cartels in Mexico, international drug experts in Bangkok and Kabul, and more. Voeten also interviewed numerous authorities, judges, and social workers who are trying to stop the meth epidemic.

Methamphetamine: the quintessential American drug. American housewives, heads of state, businessmen and poets alike have acquired a taste for the yellow, crystalline powder. Everyone from Hitler to President Kennedy to Elvis to Jack Kerouac indulged in one of its many forms, and its presence has been an invisible hand shaping events, preparing the ground for the strangest drug epidemic the world has ever seen. Today methamphetamine is everywhere, and there seems to be no way of stemming its growth. It is the backbone of Ritalin and the "club drugs" Ecstasy, Eve and Cat. According to the DEA statistics, approximately four percent of all Americans have used clandestinely manufactured methamphetamine. In the 1960s and 1970s millions of mainstream Americans used and abused prescription amphetamines; today, anyone with a stovetop, a beaker, and a little know-how can make its derivative, methamphetamine, with chemicals purchased at the hardware store and pharmacy down the street. American Meth is the unprecedented story of a molecule in all of its incarnations, and the deep but little-known impact it has had on American life over the course of the last century. Told from the viewpoint of author Sterling Braswell, whose life has been touched by the drug, American Meth is a deeply personal drama that illuminates the epidemic we live with today.

Why cook at home when you can order in? Only 50 years ago, pure methamphetamine was legally prescribed in New Zealand to anyone looking for a boost. But it wasn't long before P was rebranded as the most dangerous and destructive drug in the world - and New Zealanders cemented as among its biggest users. With dry wit and biting insight, journalist Benedict Collins takes us inside the evolution of meth in New Zealand. From ram raids for pseudoephedrine to our own cooks and gangs 'breaking bad', a visit to the Golden Triangle of meth production in South-East Asia, multimillion-dollar busts, and a moral panic that seeded a meth-testing scandal. All set the stage for unthinkable crimes and drug-fuelled mania, but also serviced a hidden world of white-collar users - and cemented New Zealand's reputation as among the biggest meth consumers in the world. How did tough on crime become dumb on drugs? And what does a solution to Pure addiction look like? * 'A terrific, gripping read that challenges us to think differently about one of New Zealand's biggest problems.' Jarrod Gilbert, bestselling author of Patched: The History of Gangs in New Zealand 'Engrossing and written with flair, Benedict Collins tells the story of how demonising drugs and drug users causes more harm than good. The upside is: there is a better way.' Professor Michael Baker, co-author of 'Minimising the Harms from Methamphetamine' (NZ Drug Foundation/Helen Clark Foundation)

It's long been known that German soldiers used methamphetamine called Pervitin in the Second World War. But have tales of Nazis on speed obscured the other side of the story: the massive use of stimulants by British and American troops? Did total war unleash the world's first pharmacological arms race? Historian James Holland quests to dig deeper and unearth the truth behind the war.

A New York Times bestseller, Norman Ohler's Blitzed is a "fascinating, engrossing, often dark history of drug use in the Third Reich” (Washington Post). The Nazi regime preached an ideology of physical, mental, and moral purity. Yet as Norman Ohler reveals in this gripping history, the Third Reich was saturated with drugs: cocaine, opiates, and, most of all, methamphetamines, which were consumed by everyone from factory workers to housewives to German soldiers. In fact, troops were encouraged, and in some cases ordered, to take rations of a form of crystal meth—the elevated energy and feelings of invincibility associated with the high even help to account for the breakneck invasion that sealed the fall of France in 1940, as well as other German military victories. Hitler himself became increasingly dependent on injections of a cocktail of drugs—ultimately including Eukodal, a cousin of heroin—administered by his personal doctor. Thoroughly researched and rivetingly readable, Blitzed throws light on a history that, until now, has remained in the shadows. “Delightfully nuts.”—The New Yorker

Extracted from the Drug Abuse Handbook, 2nd edition, to give you just the information you need at an affordable price. Beginning with a detailed look at individual drugs and their effects on the brain, Neurochemistry of Abused Drugs considers the changes in neurotransmitter levels and discusses the relationship of these