With a combination of thorough investigative journalism, daring fieldwork, and colorful atmospheric sketches, Teun Voeten draws a very detailed and disturbing picture of a drug that is on a rapid international rise.

Methamphetamine, commonly referred to as crystal meth, is one of the most addictive drugs in the world. Heavy users can destroy themselves in just a few months. Originally given by the Nazis to their troops to fight the blitzkrieg, it has now conquered the whole world and is used at sex parties in Amsterdam and Antwerp, by former hippies in Prague, by the underclass in the slums of Harare, Cape Town, and Peshawar, by truck drivers in Thailand, and by workers in the sweatshops in Bangladesh.

Researcher Teun Voeten traveled the globe for two years to investigate all sides of this diabolic drug, exploring the bizarre history and pharmacological effects. He talked to homeless addicts in Tijuana and Los Angeles, cartels in Mexico, international drug experts in Bangkok and Kabul, and more. Voeten also interviewed numerous authorities, judges, and social workers who are trying to stop the meth epidemic.

Teun Voeten is a war photographer, anthropologist, researcher, and writer. He studied cultural anthropology and philosophy at Leiden university. As a war photographer he covered conflicts such as former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Colombia, Liberia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israël, and Syria. Voeten wrote books on the underground homeless in New York, the civil war in Sierra Leone and wrote a PhD thesis on the drug violence in Mexico. For the city of Antwerp, he researched drug related crime and the link with the Dutch narco trade. Voeten is currently researching the fentanyl crisis on the West Coast.

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