When He’s Not on Drugs He’s a Good Person’ – One Community’s Story of Meth Use and Domestic Violence

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Maruf Hassan
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When He’s Not on Drugs He’s a Good Person’ – One Community’s Story of Meth Use and Domestic Violence

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One night, after five days of smoking meth, Misty* heard a voice. It just said ‘BOOM! Get up’ and I got up and was like, ‘where’s my son?’ and I run to the bathroom and my little girl’s standing at the sink and I could see the water running and coming down the hallway and he was already blue at the bottom of the tub. So I grabbed him up and was like, I mean, panic – I couldn’t do nothing but sing ‘Amazing Grace.’ It’s the only thing I knew to do. Misty’s son, one of her five children, survived – he was saved by a neighbour who worked for the ambulance service in their Alabama community. At first glance, Misty’s story is a cautionary tale against drug use, not unlike those portrayed in campaigns like the Faces of Meth and the Meth Project in the US. Media depictions of people who use meth often show reductive, one-dimensional perspectives that demonise people as little more than monsters, criminals and addicts. While the damaging effects of methamphetamine use are too often true and indeed tragic, as researchers we wanted to understand the greater nuance and complexities of those who used meth. We were particularly interested in the motivations for meth use and the notable gendered differences associated with it, and how those differences can contribute to harm and to gender inequality. This article is part of Conversation Insights The Insights team generates long-form journalism derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.

Misty was one of the 52 people we interviewed over 18 months in the south-eastern US state of Alabama. We developed close relationships with a dozen of them, and ultimately published our findings in the journal Criminology. Central to our research was the role of images, particularly documentary-style photographs made with and by our participants. This was instrumental in helping us connect with them. It was a shared experience that allowed us all to be more comfortable with each other, and made it easier for them to share their stories. The collaborative process of making photographs with participants, showing them our photographs, and having them share theirs with us meant that the photos became intimately connected to data collection. An epidemic of meth use Rural America is suffering from an epidemic of meth use, accounting for thousands of drug overdoses every year. Almost 80% of people who use meth in these areas say they have used within the past month. Many of these people are women. Their stories are not just stories of addiction, but of motherhood, resilience and navigating abuse from their partners, much of which was closely linked to meth use. We heard stories about how meth’s supposed Job Function Email List sexual benefits exacerbated domestic abuse and coercive control. Men used violence and control to dictate when, where and with whom their romantic partners used meth, fearing the women would be unfaithful to them. Many sought to isolate, intimidate, manipulate, exploit and degrade their partners so that they could more easily control them. Although men and women shared some similar motives for using meth, such as boosted energy and experiencing the high, there was significant divergence in how they spoke about the association between sex and meth.


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As Chico, one of the male participants, explained: It’s about sex, sex, sex! It’s a sex drug, plain and simple … Anybody does it and says it don’t make them horny, they lying. … That’s what it’s designed for, to trick your brain to release more dopamine than it normally would and it floods it. That’s your pleasure to your brain. That’s what methamphetamine’s for. You should try it! Black and white overhead view of a man's hands lighting a broken glass meth pipe. His arms are tattooed, and his bare feet are visible on the floor. Chico lights up a broken meth pipe to smoke: ‘It’s about sex, sex, sex! It’s a sex drug, plain and simple.’ Photo by Jared Ragland But the women we spoke to were less likely than men to say that meth increased their desire for sex. Even among those who said that sex was enhanced while on meth, none said this was their primary motivation for using. In fact, several said that meth diminished their desire for sex and inhibited some men from being able to perform. When we mentioned that the women seldom discussed the benefits of meth for sex, some men rejected these accounts. They countered by saying that women were not being forthcoming because they did not want others to think of them as being promiscuous. It is probably no surprise that men and women talk about the sexual benefits of meth use differently. Social expectations that women be modest about their sexuality persist among all segments of society, but are especially prevalent in the American South. What was particularly interesting is how men’s stories about meth being a “sex drug” affected how they interacted with women, specifically their romantic partners.
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