cover image No Speed Limit: The Highs and Lows of Meth

No Speed Limit: The Highs and Lows of Meth

Frank Owen, . . St. Martin's, $24.95 (244pp) ISBN 978-0-312-35616-3

In this intensely researched, fascinating account of methamphetamine, Owen takes readers through the late–19th-century synthesis of ephedrine from ephedra (a medicinal plant) to meth's current status as public enemy #1. Along the way, we learn that the Nazis ate meth tablets like Now and Laters (millions of doses sustained the Wehrmacht in its rampages); meet fascinating characters like Uncle Fester, a Green Bay industrial chemist, whose books like Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture have made him a cult icon; and encounter dozens of people whose lives have been disfigured by the drug. Owen also relates how meth helped him meet deadlines as a freelance writer in the 1980s and includes the details of his own charming, four-day meth binge—for research purposes—in present-day New York City. He covers a lot of ground, literally, as he speeds through history and around the country doing interviews (longer exposure to some of the addicts and former addicts might have shed more light on exactly what makes the drug so attractive). Still, Owen's account is refreshingly clearheaded and free of hysteria. As he points out in telling detail, the current demonization of meth follows that of any number of other drug “epidemics” that have hit America over the years, with media and law enforcement learning little from one to the next. (July)