Louis Gerald Plottel

Downstream from one of the largest methamphetamine producing regions in the world, the Indonesian province of Aceh is increasingly being flooded with cheap ‘speed.’ While the government frets that “drug abuse (has) a negative impact on a nation’s economic competitiveness” (BNN, 2024), many drug users actually report using meth to work long hours without eating or sleeping. This project examines methamphetamine consumption in the life course of young men as they navigate precarious employment and post-industrial decline. Taking meth as a phenomenon that extends far beyond health and individual wellbeing, this research examines the economic, social, and nationalist etiology of addiction. It asks: what forces does meth use respond to? How do users make sense of their dependence on a drug that gives them more energy to work, while positioning them as socially transgressive and in need of rehabilitation? The project examines three primary research sites: a district office of the National Narcotics Board (BNN), a private recovery centre treating methamphetamine addicts, and an abandoned mall squatted by meth users eking out a living on the fringes of a small market area. This research examines ‘speed’ as a substance, a developmentalist ideology, and a stance towards modern working life.