1) You will have a lot of friends!
Using meth will become a door key to the company of young, funny guys who never get tired and are really enjoying their lives; they are not stuck in stereotypes and prejudices as, for example, your parents; their life is full of adventure and unusual experience, you will never feel alone; and they will be anxious to teach you everything about your new life…
2) Your mood will improve rapidly!
You will be achieving states of high euphoria you have never experienced; you will feel self-conscious and self-confidence you have always dreamt about; your communication skills will improve, there will be no nervosity in your voice any more; of course, there will be hard times when you will be out of meth, but you will already know exactly what will make you feel better…
3) You will become „somebody“!
If you have had doubts about your role in your life, forget it. You will never be a „loser“ anymore. You will become a cool guy, you will feel brave and strong, you will get slim, you won´t need to do any difficult decisions; people will be noticing you more: even those who currently seem to lose interest in you, your parents, friends, they will be concerned and worried of you; moreover, there will be an army of outreach workers who will be offering you clean needles and vitamins; there will be case workers who will be offering you treatment; but you will be just refusing it and your value will go up in the eyes of your new friends…
4) You will learn how to get money very fast!
People who will be around you already know how to gain money quickly and they are ready to teach you that. Everybody can do it, it is just about practice. You will learn how to steal expensive brand clothes, good cars, jewelry and other stuff. Or, you can learn how to prepare meth! It is pretty easy and there is a lot of money for that! You will learn quickly from your friends how to rationalize your behaviour so that you wouldn´t feel any blame. Lately, you even won´t feel any blame to steal something in your parents´s house. It is just about practice, you will get used to…
5) People will care about you!
If you will be really down, you won´t need to explain anything. You may just say that you are „addict“ and there will be people who will give you place to stay and food for free. You can have a rest for three or more month in a clinic (at worst,in a prison – but the treatment units are quite comfortable there) and then you can come back to your friends! Maybe, your life won´t be so long as that of your parents, but who cares… short but amazing life is better than long, depressing, lonely dying, don´t you think?
Attractive advertisement, isn´t it? The people I was talking to, heard such a calling before they started to use meth. What I want to emphasise is that it is not calling of the drug itself but rather of the idea of drug user, of the life-style, the identity that is connected to use of methamphetamines in specific geographical and historical situation. It was not only the effect of the drug that they appreciated but also the relationships, status, activities, all the important aspects of particular identity that was starting to develop. More importantly, even the „effect of the drug“ was gained through the relationship with others. People was taught how they should take, enjoy and feel about the drug.
This identity I am talking about is not a product of neurotransmitters, genes, pathological family or evil soul. It is an ever changing social product and many social groups were and are taking part in creating the contemporary image of „meth user“, including politics, medical scientists, psychologists, policemen, social workers, judges, journalists, policy makers, and of course, the meth users themselves. To put it more clearly, the person who start to use meth inevitably enters the identity of meth user that is already there. He or she can distance themselves from the identity, they can even change it, but not avoid it.
In this blog I would like to describe the process of creating the „idea of meth user“ in more deatil, both from the perspective of society and the individual. Since the most important thing I believe is that the identity is a dialectical process: the person enters some already established identity and at the same time he or she is actively creating and re-creating it. Most of my theoretical thinking is inspired by the classical work of P. Berger and T. Luckmann Social construction of reality, also by I. Hacking: Social Construction of What? and finally by I. Burkitt and his 2nd edition of Social Selves. The application of their thoughts for the use of methaphetamine comes out from my interviews with ex-users.
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