Meth Storm

METH STORM was very well-received in its world premiere at Austin'S SXSW Film Festival. This is a powerful film about what addiction to this awful drug can do a family and a community - in this case, Faulkner County, Arkansas. The film makers spent a long time in the community and got to know some of the individuals well which allowed them to get remarkable and up close footage including film of people shooting up on meth. (This takes up well-beyond the romanticized and action-packed version of Meth seen on Breaking Bad.) While much of the blame for their bad choices can be placed on the individuals, it can also be blamed on the failures of government to provide these families jobs, educational opportunity, health care, and any sort of accessible drug treatment. The society has failed these families whose only real opportunity is the black market drug trade. The only governmental response is in law enforcement, but that seems to be utter and complete failure as well. The close-up view of the crisis is overwhelming. The mother tries to get her kids to quit drugs while failing to confront her own long-term addiction. The squalid conditions in which they live are heart-breaking. The ruined lives and the young kids that seem to have little more to look forward to are simply devastating to observe. The DEA agent attempts to arrest small-time dealers in hopes of breaking the drug ring and catching the Mexican source without seeming to realize that they are chasing shadows. They don't seem to realize that they can never win by prosecuting the demand side of the equation. This powerful film certainly raises more questions that it answers (much like the Michael Douglas film Traffic a generation ago). It has been picked up by HBO Films which should provide it with a well-deserved wider audience.

As a former paramedic, unfortunately this is exactly how meth affects not just the user, but their families and the community,

I've been sober for 33 years, and so the crack/meth/opiate epidemics have grown outside my radar. This film is shocking, utterly shocking. If this is happening throughout the heartland, how do we even have a population? You hear about it and read about how large an issue it is, but this film really brings it home. We are in serious trouble. These people are addicted to drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sugar - they spend all day every day putting various types of poisons in their bodies. It's all they do - and you wonder why our national life expectancy is going down. Diabetes, overdose, heart disease, cancers due to tobacco use - and then add suicide to that. Wow what a gripping film.

Meth Storm

The film is a documentary on crystal meth addicts and dealers in Arkansas, during a period of time that the DEA was actively pursuing a way of halting production, or halting import, of the dangerous drug. It was called Operation Ice Storm named for the street slang for crystal meth.

It is heartbreaking to see the depths that these people will go just to make ends meet. The people they show being arrested, or using, are all in poverty, and they use the proceeds of their illegal sales to get by.

Addicts also beget addicts as some of the adult children of addicts also tried it and are now addicts. These adult children also have young children, and I worry for their safety. The documentary does not hold back in showing these real life situations. Some people have their faces blurred, but the majority do not.

This documentary is not for everyone. I can completely understand if this is a subject that one does not want to know about, but it exists. If you, or a loved one, is struggling with addiction, there is help, but it may not be enough.

"I'm not trying to be rude, nanny, but tell Dad he needs to make better choices"

"Meth Storm" is a disarmingly sweet documentary about a meth using family in Arkansas. You wouldn't think a documentary of this topic could be sweet, but it is. The family this documentary centers around is a mother, a step father and her three sons (?) and two daughters. The mother and her son's are meth addicts who have each served repeated times in jail. Most are without jobs, but somehow still find drugs and love to share with each other. Drugs and love is what passes between these family members, and it is both heartbreaking and redeeming to see. Heartbreaking to see the mother seem to teach addiction, but also redeeming for her to try to maintain a support system when that return to jail takes place. Her family is both of the more dysfunctional and compassionate one could hope to find. It's easy to judge her incapabilities but the documentary teaches you to try to be more respectful.

The people busting these families are also surprisingly respectful which seems rare to see. One phrase I remember is a police man (and mayor of a small town) hoping to be there "to help, not to hurt." I liked what he had to say to the people he busted.

"Meth Storm" is not exploitive of this meth addicted family, although it does show many kinds of nitty gritty which speaks of a rare kind of trust between filmmaker and subject more than anything. For this quality I commend this documentary, although for most people it will be entirely not what they expect. If you want to spend an hour of your life judging some meth addicted "white trash" people, unfortunately "Meth Storm" is not for you. It's not until the end of the film that the mother's rape becomes even hinted at. There's no glorification of the unfortunate here. This is a wise and hopeful documentary with a lot of humanity.

Criticisms because the title doesn't necessarily reflect what the documentary is really about. This is more of a portrait of a family and one police officer rather than a documentary about meth on any kind of grand scale. There is not really any violence either as might be expected from the nature of the word "storm." "Meth Storm" is decidedly mellow, and I liked the change of pace.