I always assumed that the fetishisation of drug-taking was strictly the domain of other drug fiends...then again, western culture seems to frequently indulge in vicarious 'partying' as entertainment, so perhaps getting kicks by watching others get high is a wider cultural phenomenon.
That said, it's a really fucked up way to exploit vulnerable people in a country with such draconian drug laws.
I have a friend that used to live in Phnom Penh, who had a girlfriend that used a lot of methamphetamine.
In Cambodia, as in much of south east Asia (and china too, it would seem) they would vape meth off foil, into a pipe that is then run through water in a bong-like set-up as these pictures show. I've also always thought it must waste an awful lot to smoke something so water soluble through a bong - which is confirmed an a story he told me about his ex-girlfriend.
He asked her "what are you doing tonight?"
To which she replied "cooking".
Bemused, he said "...but you don't cook!"
So she explained that by "cook", she meant to simmer down the water from her smoking apparatus, in order to recrystallise (or in some way retrieve) the meth that had accumulated in it.
In this case i think it was 'yaba' - meth pressed into pills that are vaped/'smoked'.
As for whether or not the North Korean government is involved in methamphetamine exports in the region; there appears to be evidence to support this - they certainly have been involved in drug traffic, as a heroin seizure known in Australia as
The Pong Su Incident seems to indicate - as a high-ranking North Korean government official was among the crew members on a smuggling ship.
Strangely enough, I feel like the crystal meth taboo is only a fairly recent thing in Australia (beyond the taboo that is present in all illicit drug use) - as in the late 90s, early 2000s when meth became prominent in Australian drug circles, it seemed to have fairly wide social acceptance. Nowhere near as much as 'ecstasy' did, at the time (when 'bunk pills' were practically unheard of, and people I knew that would never consider smoking pot or taking any other drugs besides alcohol and cigarettes - would happily drop a pill on a night out) it seemed that taking meth was fairly accepted on the social hierarchy of drug taking.
Unlike the US, where meth has had negative cultural connotations for decades - it seems that meth has picked up a lot of social baggage in the last 10-15 years - but amongst drug users, meth still doesn't seem to have the stigma that is has in other parts of the world.
This may be due to Australia's rather lacklustre drug market (illegal drugs are expensive in comparison to most other developed nations, and drugs such as cocaine are prohibitively expensive to the lower ends of the drug taking socio-economic spectrum, so perhaps meth fills that void with little competition.
It seems a stretch to suggest that proximity to Asia has anything to do with it, but as Asian cultures influence and become part of Australian culture - perhaps it makes sense that drug culture norms are part of this cultural mix.
As Australia's drugs have long been connected to south east Asia in terms of origin (#4 heroin from the Golden Triangle has been a part of Australia's drug scene since the Vietnam War era) - so maybe it isn't too far fetched to see a link between the (anecdotally) superior quality Asian-import meth, and the culture that is more accepting of the drug that links it to Australian shores.
I'm not sure if that makes any sense, or if it is the slightest bit true, as I haven't taken meth for many years.
Some Asian countries (particularly Japan) have a long history of widespread methamphetamine use - so I'm not surprised that the social attitudes towards its use are different to those in the 'Western world'. This may sound incredibly over-simplified (and frankly it is) as Asian cultures are diverse and varied between different regions and communities - but as illegal drugs are so strictly forbidden in most Asian counties - with extremely harsh penalties for drug crimes - the cultural influence of America (for example) may have a lot less influence in terms of drug-related stigma than it does in a country like Australia - where the exchange of ideas (helped by common language and many other cultural elements) are a lot less restricted - and something like the taboo surrounding meth use can cross over quite easily - whereas China has many barriers preventing this negative connotations of a particular drug from taking root in Chinese culture.
I'm sure it is a much more complicated dynamic than that - but fully synthetic drugs like methamphetamine have exploded across the world in the last few decades, in part because they do not require fields of plants (such as heroin, marijuana, hash) or other naturally derived standard precursors such as Safrole (MDMA) to manufacture. This is probably the biggest driving force in the continuing spread of methamphetamine, come to think of it. Even in countries that will execute people for selling it - where there is demand, there are drugs - and there is always demand.
Shit - that was an incredibly long, rambling post. Sorry about that...
Believe it or not, I am
not high on meth!
