Doctoral Dissertation Research: Treating Addiction through the Law: An Ethnography of Methamphetamine in Rural America

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Title: Doctoral Dissertation Research: Treating Addiction through the Law: An Ethnography of Methamphetamine in the Rural United StatesPIs: Joao Biehl and William GarriottProposal Number: 0647698This project studies how law is being used to address the methamphetamine epidemic in the rural United States. It is an extended ethnographic study of a five county area in eastern West Virginia where the effects of the methamphetamine epidemic are just beginning to be felt. Through conversational participant observation and archival research, this project will examine how rural communities are responding to the rise in crime and other social problems associated with methamphetamine, with specific emphasis on the way law is being deployed in this process. The focus here is less on how formal legislation is being implemented, than with how the place of law in everyday life is changing in methamphetamine's wake. As methamphetamine makes crime an increasingly common part of everyday life, how is law being called upon to address it? How are expectations of the law changing as a result? And how is the focus on the criminal effects of methamphetamine impacting the treatment of those struggling with addiction? Research will focus on a variety of actors involved with methamphetamine, from law enforcement officials to medical professionals to concerned citizens, and involve interviews, analysis of criminal case files, and participant-observation work in courtrooms, mental health facilities and with citizen action groups. Particular attention will be paid to how law works in the lives of those convicted of meth-related crimes, especially those who are likewise struggling with methamphetamine addiction. In this way, this research will provide an ethnographic portrait of how the methamphetamine epidemic is affecting rural communities on an everyday basis. By bringing the tools of long-term ethnographic fieldwork to bear on the longstanding concern with drug addiction and crime in American life, it will also contribute to wider conversations on the changing role of crime and law in the governance of contemporary communities and states. Rural communities, as well as state and federal agencies, can benefit by using this research to develop better models for dealing with the problems of addiction and drug-related crime that factor the particularities of rural life into the equation.