to auntie:
I an trying to study the meth thing and I found this interesting. People these days make a lot of use of energy drinks and pills and other things because in order to do the amount of work demanded of them by their employers, even young healthy people can't do it without help. I myself have had to quit 2 jobs for the simple reason that my bosses kept loading more and more work on me until I was no longer physically able to do the job. To increase my ability I use yerba mate, which is legal, not physically addicting and works well.
At the time when I was making ear rings and selling for $1 pair in the streets and parking lots, the part where I had to sit down and actually produce the ear rings was mentally exhausting. I had to invent and create as I went. Yerba mate' made the difference between being able to think up new designs for two hours or for 6 hours. The history of yerba mate' has some similarities with cocaine in that it was used to give to laborers to enable them to work more with less food. Now that vapes have been invented I recently started vaping the mate' and it seems to work very well, giving me good results with a fraction of the herb. I pay $13 lb for mate so if I can save on how much I have to buy by vaping it so much the better.
Labor practices have gotten to the point where so many people have to work so hard for so little that I can easily believe this view of meth use. It is worth considering.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/15/heres-what-breaking-bad-gets-right-and-wrong-about-the-meth-business/ The CDC notes that some meth users rely on it to get "increased energy to work multiple jobs." Researchers at Indiana University and at the Universities of Colorado and Kentucky have found that, "The long hours and tedious work in oil fields, agriculture, construction, ancillary health care and fast food restaurants may be more tolerable on methamphetamine. Users report using meth to provide the energy to work multiple jobs or be a good mother."
Guides to identifying and treating meth addiction, like Herbert Covey's "The Methamphetamine Crisis," tell readers to look out for, "workaholics or low-income adults who use it to stay awake and perform in multiple jobs. Working low-income individuals find meth attractive because they must work several jobs or long hours to support themselves or their families. They find that higher energy and alertness (ability to stay awake for prolonged periods) helps them cope with the demands of multiple jobs."