ABSTRACT
Rural areas serve as points of illicit drug production, in particular methamphetamine and marijuana. The National Institute on Drug Abuse defines methamphetamine as a central nervous system stimulant that produces an intense euphoric sense among the people who use it by blocking the release and reuptake of dopamine in the their brains. Perhaps drugs such as methamphetamine and marijuana are particularly problematic among rural residents in part because the ingredients or conditions needed for production are present. Cultivating marijuana can have many of the features of any hobby that draws in the participant. Cultivating outdoors is particularly easy in rural areas where there is sufficient rainfall and sufficiently rich soil, as is true in much of the Midwest. Among the unintended consequences were the growth of meth use in urban and suburban areas and new social and cultural modes of meth production and use in rural areas.
