Breaking Bad and Methamphetamine Culture

[ModestGoddess]

I binge-watched this whole series with my grandmother. We both loved it, and thought the whole concept and execution were very engaging and clever. Sometimes I was using, sometimes not. One of the show's cultural repercussions that I found the funniest - I've actually come across real blue meth. The stuff was comparable to what I usually get. I'm sure it was only food coloring, but I thought it demonstrated the profound effect of the media on even such controversial topics as hard drug culture. I tried to convince my dealer to watch it, but most real tweakers don't seem to be very interested. Perhaps they suspect the message would be similar to the "Faces of Meth" and/or "Not Even Once" anti-drug campaigns. I think of these as ultimately damaging, because they are so biased and not entirely truthful. I am one of those light habitual users who do not identify with typical tweaker culture. I try to distance myself from most of the people in it. My dealer is a friend I trust, but I still don't let him drive my car. What are your thoughts on the popular cultural effects of this show?

 

[slimvictor]

Welcome to BL! While your post is about drugs in the media, it is not like most of what we have here, which is usually based on some article that appeared in the media. (You can see the guidelines in my signature.)
This would probably fit much better in Drug Culture.
However, I find your question to be very interesting, and I wonder if (and hope that) there is a place for it here.
So, we can try it out, and may decide to move it to DC if it doesn't do well here.

As for the topic of the thread, I tend to believe that Breaking Bad began the process of exposing the public to basically realistic information about meth and meth use.
(No, not totally real, but good at least at bringing into their awareness the fact that meth users are human beings - e.g. it may be the first time they saw people (portrayed as being) on meth.)
"The worst drug" became a bit less abstract, more real and less imaginary, which is good because the imaginary version is mostly based on hype, slant, and fearmongering.

 

[Clocktower]

I agree that Breaking Bad portrays a rather strange version of meth/amphetamine and its effects, but I like the fact that most of the conflict in the show is driven by people, not the drug itself. That message resonates well with me.

 

[Crankinit]

Yeah if meth had effects anything like what they portrayed in the show, nobody would actually use it. I suspect they wanted to avoid being seen as encouraging or endorsing drug use by portraying it as pleasurable (as well as destructive), so they left out the parts of the high people enjoy and just depicted them turning into paranoid tweaked out wrecks.

 

[Burnt Offerings]

Yeah people started actually making "blue meth" after breaking bad. At least in the southwest USA. Dealers have been adding colors to drugs as a marketing gimmick for a long time now, though...an episode of "Drugs Inc" that featured my homestate interviewed a dealer who sold "pink crack" (as in crack cocaine dyed pink)

 

[ModestGoddess]

It looked exactly like blue topaz.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

Yeah if meth had effects anything like what they portrayed in the show, nobody would actually use it. I suspect they wanted to avoid being seen as encouraging or endorsing drug use by portraying it as pleasurable (as well as destructive), so they left out the parts of the high people enjoy and just depicted them turning into paranoid tweaked out wrecks.

not really what about the episode where jesse tries heroin and floats off of the surface of his bed

or the episode where tuco was doing meth and shooting at the cows with an assault rifle laughing histerically

or the episode where jesse has that huge meth party for days straight at his house.

those seemed like portrayals of the fun part

 

[methyldreams]

I was really surprised when I seefn a episode one night of a high school chemistry teacher pushing a student into making meth,
To me it portrayed what meth really is like in the big wide world, not all people who use are the people you see on those posters, It takes more then just will power for most people to become ultimately successful in life.
I watched it from episode 1 to the very last. It being the only show on TV that I have enjoyed Yeah I am abit biased loving meth myself but the show was sure written by tweakers (I'm sure most writters would be on it for it's benefit's.
Good thread brother!!! that's enough BL for this meth head who is slowly coming down after his first puff in 6 weeks.

 

[Iodjini_dk]

Being a chemist myself I found the whole blue methylamine/blue meth thing to be pretty ridiculous since methylamine is a colorless gas. I cannot say for sure that some routes to meth can produce blue side products. But surely no blue contaminants are produced when using pure reagents (hope this is not against the rules in here).

As for the rest of the show it never really caught my attention. Watched until halfway through season 2 and then I lost the interest. Ive done a fair share of meth myself, but I cannot relate at all to the culture depicted in breaking bad. This probably also has something to do with me not being from the US. And otherwise I didnt find the show that entertaining. To each their own