Methland

Methland: The Death and Life of a Small American Town is a nonfiction book published in 2009 by American journalist Nick Reding. Focusing on the small town of Oelwein, Iowa, Reding traces the beginnings of America’s meth epidemic to its current prevalence in the rural Midwest. Methland is a blend of sociology, economics, memoir, and history that provides a perspective that is ultimately hopeful about America’s ability to solve its meth problem, even if the outlook is often bleak. 

After an overview of Oelwein’s history and an introduction to several key figures in the town, Reding investigates why the Midwest—with Oelwein as its exemplar—is so susceptible to the meth trade. Iowa is one of the 28 landlocked U.S. states. In some ways, these states are radically different entities than the U.S. coastal cities and commerce hubs. While they are part of America, they often lag behind in infrastructure and economic status, and are open to exploitation by the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries.

Although Reding takes great care to depict Oelwein, he also makes clear that the town is not unique in terms of small municipalities ravaged by meth. Anything that happens in Oelwein could happen in other places in rural America. This allows Reding to warn of the dangers—and raise possible solutions—that he can extrapolate onto other towns.

Methland contains lengthy, meticulous histories of how the agricultural and pharmaceutical industries enable drug trafficking organizations to claim so much American territory. Reding shows how pharmaceutical lobbyists, governmental bureaucracies, corporate greed, the media’s treatment of the meth epidemic, and haphazard U.S. immigration policies also contributed to Oelwein’s misery.

When he is not focused on the history of the meth trade, Reding grounds the rest of the book in the stories of several characters. Larry Murphy, Oelwein’s Mayor, works tirelessly to improve the town but does not know if there are definitive solutions to Oelwein’s woes. Nathan Lein is a prosecutor who grows weary of seeing the same addicts in court over and over. Clay Hallberg is an alcoholic physician who contends with the insurance companies and the lack of resources for addicts. Roland Jarvis, disfigured during a meth-related explosion, is Oelwein’s most horrific story of meth use. Through these men and other characters, Reding paints a human, street-level picture of the effects of meth in the lives of rural American citizens.

Methland is a call-to-action for those interested in understanding the challenges faced by small-town America and its appeal to drug traffickers. It complements works such as Gabor Mate’s In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and Sam Quinones’s book Dream Land, which also focus on addiction and how drugs take root in specific regions.