Methamphetamines were first invented in 1893 by a Japanese scientist. However, the drug was not introduced to the United States until World War II to keep troops awake. The drug was initially used to treat asthma, narcolepsy, and as a weight loss drug. However, following World War II use of the drug would spike in the United States and eventually get banned in 1973. However, this ban did little to stop the use of methamphetamines. It spread quickly in the United States due to it being both highly addictive and relatively easy to create as well as it being versatile since you can snort, smoke, or drink it. The United States began to fiercely fight the rise in methamphetamines usage in the 1980s however would ultimately be unsuccessful as drug use would skyrocket in the 1990s and early 2000s and by 2006 the United Nations called it the most abused hard drug on Earth. The introduction of meth to the United States would play a massive role on poet Natalie Diaz’s life. Diaz’s brother, the subject of her book ‘When My Brother was an Aztec”, was for a long period addicted to meth. Much of Diaz’s writing, such as “When My Brother was an Aztec”, focuses on the impact that her brother’s drug use would have on her and her family.
Work Cited
History.com Editors. “History of Meth - Crystal, Bust & Timeline | HISTORY.” HISTORY, 7 June 2017, www.history.com/articles/history-of-meth.