Beautiful Boy: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

During David’s first summer at Berkeley, Charles moved up from Tucson and enrolled in summer school. One evening, he brought home crystal meth, and David snorted the lines through a dollar bill. The body quickly absorbs meth, which triggers 10 to 20 times the normal level of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine in the brain. This renders the user euphoric. Meth remains active for 10 to 12 hours, but afterward users feel “bleak, depleted and agitated.” David never touched meth again. He lost touch with Charles but eventually learned that his life was defined by drug abuse; Charles died on the eve of his fortieth birthday from liver and kidney failure.

Knowing that Nic has used meth, David tries to learn more about it. A German chemist first synthesized amphetamine in 1887; a Japanese pharmacologist then synthesized methamphetamine in 1919, which was more potent and easier to make. Meth was widely used in World War II to increase U.S. soldiers’ endurance and performance. In 1941, milder forms of meth were sold over the counter, marketed as a medication that would increase energy and liveliness. But many people hallucinated and became violent while taking the drug.

In 1951, the Food and Drug Administration classified meth as a controlled substance, requiring a prescription. Illegal meth labs soon emerged in San Francisco, and a national epidemic of the drug began in the middle 1960s.  Use of meth has fluctuated over time, but many experts say that the drug is now strong and more widely circulated than ever, creeping across the country from the West Coast to the East Coast. Former D.E.A. chief Asa Hutchinson called meth America’s foremost drug problem.

Meth users include men and women of every class, race, and background. The World Health Organization estimates 35 million meth users, compared to 15 million for cocaine and 7 million for heroin. The most pervasive form is crystal, which can be manufactured with ingredients from nonprescription cold pills. Thus, drug stores limited the amounts of these pills that can be purchased at one time. This has led many small toxic labs to shut down but has instead encouraged business from international drug cartels.

Reporter Steve Suo holds that the government could contain the meth epidemic but is often prohibited by pharmaceutical companies, which do not want the distribution of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine to be controlled. As a result, meth users can find the drug virtually anywhere, and meth use is increasing.

As many as half of all meth users “tweak,” an experience characterized by auditory and visual hallucinations, paranoia, and delusions. This can lead to aggression and violence, and many incidents have been reported of people killing their neighbors, spouses, and children while tweaking.

In addition to crime, meth causes significant environmental damage, as one pound of meth creates six pounds of corrosive liquids, vapors, and metals. The health effects of meth are incredibly serious, as drug overdoses from meth land more people in emergency rooms than any other club drug combined. Meth also contributes to fatal accidents and suicides and can lead to ruptured aortas and lung problems. Many meth addicts lose their teeth, and chronic meth use can cause “Parkinson’s-like cognitive dysfunction” from meth-induced strokes.

David continues asking Nic to go to rehab, but Nic refuses, insisting that he won’t use meth again. Because Nic is over 18, David cannot involuntarily commit him. He says that if he had seen this coming, he would have forced Nic into rehab while he still could. For the next three days, Nic sleeps for 20 hours a day, and afterward he is depressed and withdrawn. In the spring Nic disappears again without warning.