In Hidden Addictions: A Pastoral Response to the Abuse of Legal Drugs, you'll find that beneath the gruesome, more public face of illegal drug abuse lies another less hideous, but just as destructive, layer of addiction--the addiction to prescribed drugs. In this revealing study, you'll learn how you can confront the hidden malady of legal drug dependency in individuals and ultimately break its chokehold on a world already ravaged by complacency and social-systemic dysfunction.The only book of its kind, Hidden Addictions is a concise, readable pastoral perspective on the creeping epidemic of legal drug abuse. Its illuminating case vignettes show you the social roots of addiction and give you the spiritual and religious resources necessary to put you and your loved ones on the road to holistic recovery. Specifically, you'll read about: groups most at risk--girls, young women, and older women types of drugs, including tranquilizers, sedatives, antidepressants, and painkillers over-the-counter drugs and look-alike drugs women and the pharmaceutical industry recovery methods, including detoxification, family therapy, and couple counseling spiritual resources and systemic reformIn a society already addicted to power, pleasure, and possession, you don't always see the "warning buttons" being pushed. But this book shows that you can turn back the quiet tide of spiritual sickness and psychochemical dependency that's sweeping the globe. So whether you're a pastor whose congregation is suffering, a social worker administering to addicted clientele, or a campus minister, Hidden Addictions will give you the pragmatism and awareness you need to heal the wounded soul.

In Hidden Addictions: A Pastoral Response to the Abuse of Legal Drugs, you ll find that beneath the gruesome, more public face of illegal drug abuse lies another less hideous, but just as destructive, layer of addiction--the addiction to prescribed drugs. In this revealing study, you ll learn how you can confront the hidden malady of legal drug dependency in individuals and ultimately break its chokehold on a world already ravaged by complacency and social-systemic dysfunction.The only book of its kind, Hidden Addictions is a concise, readable pastoral perspective on the creeping epidemic of legal drug abuse. Its illuminating case vignettes show you the social roots of addiction and give you the spiritual and religious resources necessary to put you and your loved ones on the road to holistic recovery. Specifically, you ll read about: groups most at risk--girls, young women, and older women types of drugs, including tranquilizers, sedatives, antidepressants, and painkillers over-the-counter drugs and look-alike drugs women and the pharmaceutical industry recovery methods, including detoxification, family therapy, and couple counseling spiritual resources and systemic reformIn a society already addicted to power, pleasure, and possession, you don t always see the "warning buttons" being pushed. But this book shows that you can turn back the quiet tide of spiritual sickness and psychochemical dependency that s sweeping the globe. So whether you re a pastor whose congregation is suffering, a social worker administering to addicted clientele, or a campus minister, Hidden Addictions will give you the pragmatism and awareness you need to heal the wounded soul.

This study of first generation Chinese youth and their parents who have immigrated to Houston reveals the ways in which this group resists assimilation into the dominant Western milieu and instead accommodates itself as a paracommunity with the culture of its host city. Chinese parents counter Western influence on their children by enrolling them in Chinese language schools, having them participate in Chinese community events, and encouraging them to develop a network of Chinese friends.
The study presents a detailed ethnography of a Chinese language school. It traces the negotiations between traditional Chinese beliefs-in particular, unquestioned submission to authority, kinship systems, and the denial of the singular self-and the developed sense of self in Western individualism. This study of identity reformation clearly indicates that there is space within the dialectics of immigration and the related cultural processes that enables the immigrant community to resist the image of all diasporic people as liminars and hybrids. The Chinese in this study do not sacrifice their past and their values in order to reformulate themselves for the present. Rather, they are determined to create a self-referential identity within a living and growing Chinese culture.

Alcohol, Drugs, Genes and the Clinical Laboratory provides an overview and quick reference to genetic relationships and clinical laboratory information related to the serious public health issue of alcohol and drug abuse. Written in a clear and concise manner, this book discusses the necessary information for health and safety professionals working in public health to learn about complex issues quickly to better help their patients, employees, and others affected by alcohol and drug abuse. Alcohol, Drugs, Genes and the Clinical Laboratory covers the important aspects of drugs and alcohol abuse including genetic aspects along with laboratory methods for analysis of alcohol and abused drugs with emphasis on false positive test results. The book is helpful to healthcare professionals, such as pathologists who oversee alcohol and drug testing, emergency room physicians, family practice physicians who are first healthcare professionals who identify patients susceptible to drug and alcohol abuse, and psychiatrists involved with drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs. It will also be useful to safety professionals who have to assess individuals for workplace responsibilities, ranging from police and recruitment to occupational safety and occupational medicine and public health officials.

Children With Prenatal Drug Exposure examines new medical approaches for predicting the developmental progress of children who have been exposed to drugs in utero. This book outlines effective methods for intervention and assessment and indicates future directions for investigation. It provides practical and up-to-date information on treatments and research development, while it encourages practitioners to come to their own conclusions through careful documentation and analysis of each case. Children With Prenatal Drug Exposure cuts across many disciplines to provide the reader with a vivid analysis of the complexities and challenges surrounding health care of children who have been prenatally exposed to drugs. This guidebook explores the controversies over treatment and therapy options and the ethics of care. It advocates positive outcome intervention methods that promote the health interests of both mother and unborn child whenever possible, with an emphasis on clinical efforts geared to change maternal behavior.Practical and comprehensive, Children With Prenatal Drug Exposure explores a full range of provoking topics, including: neurological effects and sensory motor delays caused by cocaine exposure foster care and its impact on motor development adolescent pregnancy and the complications of prenatal substance abuse ethical dilemmas multidimensional measurement systems and longitudinal research The book's authors believe that in order to meet the needs of children who have been prenatally exposed to drugs, care providers must know the limitations associated with the process and methodology of assessment and learn to address the shortcomings of evaluation. With this in mind, this book aims to equip psychologists, physical and occupational therapists, researchers, and physicians with the know-how they require for optimizing their health care services and contributing valuable research that the field so urgently needs.

First published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Substance Abuse in the Workplace makes a valuable contribution to the national movement to help stem the tide of drug abuse. The book begins with the history of substance abuse, continues with a discussion of how the human body functions normally or under the influence of chemicals, and follows with a toxicological description of the more common chemicals abused today in America. It discusses ways to help the abuser through identification and assistance programs and also covers the laws involved.
The broad audience for Substance Abuse in the Workplace is includes middle and upper management, labor leaders, industrial hygienists, safety personnel, and workers.

This book describes the events, activities and negotiations leading up to the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on international drug policy. A range of respected authors from International institutions, academia and civil society organisations detail the background to the negotiations and the outcome; and possible future scenarios for continued reform and change at the High Level Review in 2019. The chapters include consideration of the positions taken by blocs and nation-states at all points on the prohibition - reform continuum. Topics covered include discussions on the importance of human rights, access to essential medicines and the role played by cannabis in revealing the contradictions and divisions in both national and international contexts. The break-down of the previous international consensus on 'the world drug problem' is clearly described and analysed, as is the slow progress being made to the adoption of a human rights and health-based approach to currently illegal drugs. Consideration is also given to the nations and arguments which continue to defend prohibition and its repressive impacts on national populations, and the prioritising of geo-politics over population health this represents in practice. There are lessons and examples here for international politics and national policy reform.

This valuable study integrates concepts from environmental criminology and problem-oriented policing in a rigorous evaluation of civil remedies used to inhibit drug dealing. --Ronald V. Clarke, Dean, School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University "Policing Places with Drug Problems is well-written, current, and interesting. In particular, it is by far the best description that I have read on the topic of 'place-oriented' strategies of crime control. The integration of the literature on different strategies is outstanding. The book will make an important contribution to the field. Police officers and administrators as well as academics, researchers, and policymakers will find the literature review and research interesting and informative." --Doris L. MacKenzie, University of Maryland at College Park "SMART inspections began as an innovative search for alternative ways to solve community problems. This book captures the essence of the program, its positive results, and raises issues about the future of police problem-solving efforts." --Bob Crawford, Founder, Beat Health Unit, Oakland Police Department "In Policing Places with Drug Problems, Lorraine Green has paid close attention to the lessons of the new criminology of crime prevention. Her methods are cautious and thoughtful, and tailor-made to the substantive problems she examines. This is one of the first major criminal justice evaluations to rely heavily on computer mapping technologies. Accordingly, Green draws from a broad array of data but links them to the places where the interventions are practiced. Her conclusions hold particular weight because she has selected a case study that provides a clear and powerful test of the crime prevention components that it employs. . . . This is an important book with significant research and policy implications. Its message about policing is one that should be heard by both scholars and policymakers. It provides us with not only guidance from a successful case study but also new and important evidence about the ability of criminal justice agents to do something about crime." --from the Foreword by David Weisburd, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem Timely and informative, Policing Places with Drug Problems focuses on the success of nontraditional, place-oriented drug control strategies in cities across the nation. In her perceptive case study, author Lorraine Green examines SMART (Specialized Multi-Agency Response Team), a program developed by an innovative police practitioner, Sergeant Bob Crawford of the Oakland Police Department. As an alternative to arrest-oriented strategies, SMART engages active enforcement of civil codes and regulatory rules to clean up drug centers, encouraging citizens, landlords, and business owners to work with police in a community effort at drug abatement. In her careful analysis, the author studies the extent to which deviant places can be changed as well as the implications of implementing nontraditional, street-level drug control strategies. A new contribution to policing innovation, this volume concludes with a thoughtful discussion of the challenges that face cities developing alternative drug policing programs. An excellent resource, Policing Places with Drug Problems provides a must-read analysis of place-oriented drug control strategies of particular interest to researchers, practitioners, policymakers, academics and students in criminology, criminal law, policing, urban studies, and social work.

From the moment she uttered the brave and honest words, "I am an alcoholic," to interview George Stephanopoulos, Elizabeth Vargas began writing her story, as her experiences were still raw. Now, in BETWEEN BREATHS, Vargas discusses her accounts of growing up with anxiety-which began suddenly at the age of six when her father served in Vietnam-and how she dealt with this anxiety as she came of age, to her eventually turning to alcohol for relief. She tells of how she found herself living in denial, about the extent of her addiction and keeping her dependency a secret for so long. She addresses her time in rehab, her first year of sobriety, and the guilt she felt as a working mother who had never found the right balance. Honest and hopeful, BETWEEN BREATHS is an inspiring read.

This book presents new and important information about adolescent drug use. The book is intended for human service professionals, teachers, researchers, and students interested in the issue of early adolescent drug use and its causes and pervasiveness in a multiethnic population. Today, the field of adolescent drug use research relies on integrative models that permit competing explanations of drug use. This approach promotes flexibility in testing hypotheses pertinent to adol- cents of very different social and cultural backgrounds or personal characteristics. Longitudinal studies, including the one presented in these pages, have identified many risk and protective factors or processes that are linked to adolescent drug use. We review these throughout this book and present new information from our own research. Our point of departure is to extend and elaborate descriptive research and models of adolescent drug research to cover the unique and diverse experiences of adolescents who are Hispanic, African American, and White non-Hispanic.

Here is a valuable book to help professionals provide the most successful treatment for chemically dependent teenagers by examining the special conditions associated with adolescent chemical dependency. Counselors with experience in treating alcoholism and substance abuse need to have an awareness of the distinctive problems of adolescent chemical dependence that are related to their developmental nature. Such complicated problems as sexual abuse, eating disorders, addictive gambling, and membership in cults are discussed in their relationship to the treatment of the adolescent substance abuser. Special cases of the mentally impaired adolescent and the relapsing chemically dependent adolescent are also discussed in this remarkable volume. Treatment professionals will find encouragement for their work with adolescent clients in Special Problems in Counseling the Chemically Dependent Adolescent, which approaches counseling from a holistic perspective and perceives the family structure as an agent of change. The comprehensive chapters create a better understanding of the different addictions that affect the adolescent population and the pertinent factors that complicate the treatment of chemical addiction. The correlation between chemical abuse and child abuse in families is examined and strategies for treating adolescents suffering from chemical abuse and gambling addiction are suggested. A study of eating disorders among adolescents demonstrates the similarities in the etiology, treatment, and assessment of anorexia, bulimia, and compulsive eating, and the conditions resulting in chemical dependency. Experienced professionals counseling and working with adolescents will be able to provide more efficient treatment to their clients by utilizing the practical suggestions presented in this important book.

Everything we know about drugs-from acid to epidemics to DARE and salvia-turns out to be wrong Stock up on munchies and line up your water bottles: journalist Ryan Grim will take you on a cross-country tour of illicit drug use in the U.S.-from the agony (the huge DEA bust of an acid lab in an abandoned missile silo in Kansas) to the ecstasy (hallucinogens at raves and music festivals). Along the way, Grim discovers some surprising truths. Did anti-drug campaigns actually encourage more drug use? Did acid really disappear in the early 2000s? And did meth peak years ago? Did our Founding Fathers-or, better yet, their wives-get high just as much as we do? Traces the evolution of United States's long and twisted relationship with drugs Gives surprising answers to questions such as: how did heroin become popular, when did the meth epidemic peak, and has LSD gone the way of Quaaludes Based on solid reporting and wide-ranging research-including surveys, reports, historical accounts, and more Not since Eric Schlosser ventured underground to marijuana's black market in Reefer Madness has a reporter trained such a keen eye on drugs and culture. A powerful and often shocking history of one of our knottiest social and cultural problems, This is Your Country on Drugs leads you on a profound exploration of what it means to be an American.

The number of people incarcerated in the U.S. now exceeds 2.3 million, due in part to the increasing criminalization of drug use: over 25% of people incarcerated in jails and prisons are there for drug offenses. Judging Addicts examines this increased criminalization of drugs and the medicalization of addiction in the U.S. by focusing on drug courts, where defendants are sent to drug treatment instead of prison. Rebecca Tiger explores how advocates of these courts make their case for what they call "enlightened coercion," detailing how they use medical theories of addiction to justify increased criminal justice oversight of defendants who, through this process, are defined as both "sick" and "bad." Tiger shows how these courts fuse punitive and therapeutic approaches to drug use in the name of a "progressive" and "enlightened" approach to addiction. She critiques the medicalization of drug users, showing how the disease designation can complement, rather than contradict, punitive approaches, demonstrating that these courts are neither unprecedented nor unique, and that they contain great potential to expand punitive control over drug users. Tiger argues that the medicalization of addiction has done little to stem the punishment of drug users because of a key conceptual overlap in the medical and punitive approaches-that habitual drug use is a problem that needs to be fixed through sobriety. Judging Addicts presses policymakers to implement humane responses to persistent substance use that remove its control entirely from the criminal justice system and ultimately explores the nature of crime and punishment in the U.S. today.

This handbook provides a comprehensive examination of the past and present roles of drugs in society with a focus on theory, research, policy, and practice. * Includes 28 original chapters with multi-disciplinary and international perspectives by top social and behavioral scientists * Reviews current knowledge in the field, including key research findings, theoretical developments, and methodological debates * Identifies ongoing controversies in the field, emergent topics, and areas in need of further inquiry * Discusses individual drugs as well as topics like physiological theories of drug use and abuse, public health implications of drugs, patterns of drugs and crime, international drug trade and trafficking, and designer drugs

This book provides the first comprehensive, critical analysis of the drugs problem in Ireland over the last thirty years with a particular focus on the role of drugs in crime and the role of prohibition in generating drug-related harms. Using Ireland's disastrous history of prohibition and the failure of its well-resourced harm reduction programme as a case study, the book goes on to challenge the global dominance of prohibitionist ideology, which is seen as an emotionally driven and fundamentally irrational belief system, which flies in the face of overwhelming evidence that prohibition does more harm than good. Prohibition's defences against the mass of evidence demonstrating its detrimental effects and ultimate futility are one by one exposed and dismantled. The book argues that international and national law should be based on a realistic appraisal of human nature and that a scientific view of human psychology and of the human condition explains not only the value and irresistible attraction of mood-altering substances, but also the young's stubborn resistance to the prohibitionist message. The book argues that society would make substantial gains from accepting the libertarian view that there is a right to use drugs so long as others' rights are not infringed. A non-coercive harm reduction approach based on the right to use drugs could have major benefits, eliminating many of the ill-effects of prohibition and creating a positive attitudinal dynamic that lowers the irresponsible and destructive use of drugs. -- .

Issues relating to alcohol 'misuse' can only properly be understood within their social and environmental contexts. This research and practice based book explores social models of alcohol misuse to offer a sociological approach to its treatment. Through considering the social meaning of women's alcohol use, the book challenges current policy and practice in the field. It raises concerns about the political role of 'treatment' in making women behave, or to be 'well', and aims to develop a new approach to women's drinking and new ways of aiding recovery, at national and local levels. With contributions from service users, academics and practitioners, this is essential reading for those studying addiction, gender and the social background to alcohol problems.

Finalist, 2014 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature from the Jewish Book Council Traces American Jews' complicated relationship to alcohol through the years leading up to and after prohibition From kosher wine to their ties to the liquor trade in Europe, Jews have a longstanding historical relationship with alcohol. But once prohibition hit America, American Jews were forced to choose between abandoning their historical connection to alcohol and remaining outside the American mainstream. In Jews and Booze, Marni Davis examines American Jews' long and complicated relationship to alcohol during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the years of the national prohibition movement's rise and fall. Bringing to bear an extensive range of archival materials, Davis offers a novel perspective on a previously unstudied area of American Jewish economic activity-the making and selling of liquor, wine, and beer-and reveals that alcohol commerce played a crucial role in Jewish immigrant acculturation and the growth of Jewish communities in the United States. But prohibition's triumph cast a pall on American Jews' history in the alcohol trade, forcing them to revise, clarify, and defend their communal and civic identities, both to their fellow Americans and to themselves.

Substance use and substance use disorders (SUDs) have been documented in a number of cultures since the beginnings of recorded time and represent major societal concerns in the present day. The Oxford Handbook of Substance Use and Substance Use Disorders provides comprehensive reviews of key areas of inquiry into the fundamental nature of substance use and SUDs, their features, causes, consequences, course, treatment, and prevention. It is clear that understanding these various aspects of substance use and SUDs requires a multidisciplinary perspective that considers the pharmacology of drugs of abuse, genetic variation in these acute and chronic effects, and psychological processes in the context of the interpersonal and cultural contexts. Comprising two volumes, this Handbook also highlights a range of opportunities and challenges facing those interested in the basic understanding of the nature of these phenomena and novel approaches to assess, prevent, and treat these conditions with the goal of reducing the enormous burden these problems place on our global society. Chapters in Volume 1 cover the historical and cultural contexts of substance use and its consequences, its epidemiology and course, etiological processes from the perspective of neuropharmacology, genetics, personality, development, motivation, and the interpersonal and larger social environment. Chapters in Volume 2 cover major health and social consequences of substance involvement, psychiatric comorbidity, assessment, and interventions. Each chapter highlights key issues in the respective topic area and raises unanswered questions for future research. All chapters are authored by leading scholars in each topic. The level of coverage is sufficiently deep to be of value to both trainees and established scientists and clinicians interested in an evidenced-based approach.

This book is not intended as a comprehensive take on dagga, aka cannabis, marijuana, bhanga, ganga, pot, zol, weed, etc., but as a conversation piece. It is, as a pocket book, simply a brief overview. Its hope is to provide a background to dagga in South Africa and, by putting all the dope into one joint, so to speak, ignite debate on emerging issues such as licensing, legalisation and taxation.

Social workers and other social care professionals regularly face the challenges of working with people with alcohol and other drug problems. Yet many receive little, if any, training for working with these issues. As substance use and its social impact on communities and families rises up the political agenda, this book offers a timely support for social workers and other social care staff working in this area. Supporting people with alcohol and drug problems addresses the current gap in social work and social care education. It provides a combination of research evidence, policy frameworks, and practical hints and tips for good social work practice. Based around practice examples supplied by social workers from both adults' and children's social care, it combines knowledge with action. It also provides an important introduction to the evidence base on assessment, intervention and partnership working with specialist substance use colleagues. This book is for all those working in children's and adults' social work and social care settings who are working with people who use, or have problems with, alcohol and other drugs.

This book analyses common perceptions about drink-spiking, a pervasive fear for many and sometimes a troubling reality. Ideas about spiked drinks have shaped the way we think about drugs, alcohol, criminal law, risk, nightspots, and socializing for over one hundred and fifty years, since the rise of modern anaesthesia and synthetic 'pharma-ubiquity'. The book offers a wide-ranging look at the constantly shifting cultural and gender politics of 'psycho-chemical treachery'. It provides rich case histories, assesses evolving scientific knowledge, and analyses the influence of social forces as disparate as Temperance and the acid enthusiasts of the 1960s. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, the book will be of great interest to upper-level students and scholars of criminal law, forensic science, public health, and social movements.

An extensively researched account of the ups and downs in the history of uppers Uppers. Crank. Bennies. Dexies. Greenies. Black Beauties. Purple Hearts. Crystal. Ice. And, of course, Speed. Whatever their street names at the moment, amphetamines have been an insistent force in American life since they were marketed as the original antidepressants in the 1930s. On Speed tells the remarkable story of their rise, their fall, and their surprising resurgence. Along the way, it discusses the influence of pharmaceutical marketing on medicine, the evolving scientific understanding of how the human brain works, the role of drugs in maintaining the social order, and the centrality of pills in American life. Above all, however, this is a highly readable biography of a very popular drug. And it is a riveting story. Incorporating extensive new research, On Speed describes the ups and downs (fittingly, there are mostly ups) in the history of amphetamines, and their remarkable pervasiveness. For example, at the same time that amphetamines were becoming part of the diet of many GIs in World War II, an amphetamine-abusing counterculture began to flourish among civilians. In the 1950s, psychiatrists and family doctors alike prescribed amphetamines for a wide variety of ailments, from mental disorders to obesity to emotional distress. By the late 1960s, speed had become a fixture in everyday life: up to ten percent of Americans were thought to be using amphetamines at least occasionally. Although their use was regulated in the 1970s, it didn't take long for amphetamines to make a major comeback, with the discovery of Attention Deficit Disorder and the role that one drug in the amphetamine family-Ritalin-could play in treating it. Today's most popular diet-assistance drugs differ little from the diet pills of years gone by, still speed at their core. And some of our most popular recreational drugs-including the "mellow" drug, Ecstasy-are also amphetamines. Whether we want to admit it or not, writes Rasmussen, we're still a nation on speed.

Tobacco, alcohol and other drug misuse accounts for a quarter of preventable death and disability in the developed world.

"Preventing Harmful Substance Use: The evidence base for policy and practice" offers a comprehensive summary of the best available scientific evidence for the prevention of harm from substance use. The editors provide a broad view of what constitutes prevention; including multiple approaches across various settings and levels of society. Each chapter provides important recommendations for supply, demand and harm reduction strategies that will improve the health of communities throughout the world.

A multidisciplinary team of leading international researchers and practitioners have worked together to provide authoritative accounts of their areas of expertise, which include the following: Updated concepts and theories of prevention including Community Systems Theory, Social Developmental Models, Deterrence, economics and more broad-based risk factor approaches. Overviews of the comparative health and economic costs associated with the use of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs. Worked examples of cost-benefit analyses and portfolio analyses to help policy makers decide how to invest available funds to achieve maximum population-level benefits. Up-to-date reviews of what works for a wide variety of policies and programs, including summary ratings of the strength of evidence for 70 specific strategies.

"Preventing Harmful Substance Use" will have international appeal to policy makers, educators, health professionals and researchers in psychology, psychiatry, sociology, criminology, economics, addiction, and health promotion.

Meth cooks practice late industrial alchemy-transforming base materials, like lithium batteries and camping fuel, into gold Meth alchemists all over the United States tap the occulted potencies of industrial chemical and big pharma products to try to cure the ills of precarious living: underemployment, insecurity, and the feeling of idleness. Meth fires up your attention and makes repetitive tasks pleasurable, whether it's factory work or tinkering at home. Users are awake for days and feel exuberant and invincible. In one person's words, they "get more life." The Alchemy of Meth is a nonfiction storybook about St. Jude County, Missouri, a place in decomposition, where the toxic inheritance of deindustrialization meets the violent hope of this drug-making cottage industry. Jason Pine bases the book on fieldwork among meth cooks, recovery professionals, pastors, public defenders, narcotics agents, and pharmaceutical executives. Here, St. Jude is not reduced to its meth problem but Pine looks at meth through materials, landscapes, and institutions: the sprawling context that makes methlabs possible. The Alchemy of Meth connects DIY methlabs to big pharma's superlabs, illicit speed to the legalized speed sold as ADHD medication, uniquely implicating the author's own story in the narrative. By the end of the book, the backdrop of St. Jude becomes the foreground. It could be a story about life and work anywhere in the United States, where it seems no one is truly clean and all are complicit in the exploitation of their precious resources in exchange for a livable present-or even the hope of a future.