The Methamphetamine Industry in America: Transnational Cartels and Local Entrepreneurs

Galax, a small Virginia town at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, was one of the first places that Henry H. Brownstein, Timothy M. Mulcahy, and Johannes Huessy visited for their study of the social dynamics of methamphetamine markets--and what they found changed everything. They had begun by thinking of methamphetamine markets as primarily small-scale mom-and-pop businesses operated by individual cooks who served local users. But what they found was a thriving and complex transnational industry.

The Methamphetamine Industry in America describes the reality that this industry is a social phenomenon connecting local, national, and international communities and markets. The book details the results of a groundbreaking three-stage study, part of a joint initiative of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Justice, in which police agencies across the United States were surveyed and their responses used to identify likely areas of study. The authors then visited these areas to observe and interview local participants, from users and dealers to law enforcement officers and clinical treatment workers.

This book demonstrates the importance of understanding the business of methamphetamine--and by extension other drugs in society--through a lens that focuses on social behavior, social relationships, and the cultural elements that shape the organization and operation of this illicit but effective industry.
.

HENRY H. BROWNSTEIN is associate dean for research and professor and director of the Center for Public Policy at the Wilder School for Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has written extensively on drug markets and is the author of four books, including The Problems of Living in Society.

TIMOTHY M. MULCAHY is a program area director in the Economics, Labor, and Population Studies Department at NORC at the University of Chicago, and was co-investigator of the methamphetamine market study.

JOHANNES HUESSY is a principal research analyst at NORC at the University of Chicago and research associate for the methamphetamine market study.