Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic [Hardcover]

Meredith Maran (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 2003

Why do teenagers use drugs, what happens to them when they do, and what can we do about it? Venturing into uncharted territory, mother and award-winning journalist Meredith Maran takes us inside teenagers' hearts, minds, and central nervous systems to explore the causes and consequences of our nation's drug crisis.

In these pages we get to know the kids, the parents, the therapists, and the drug treatment programs at their best and worst. We're face-to-face with seventeen-year-old Mike, whose life revolves around selling, smoking, and snorting speed; fifteen-year-old Tristan -- the boy next door -- who can't get enough pot, pills, or vodka; and sixteen-year-old Zalika, a runaway, crack dealer, and prostitute since the age of twelve. In their relapses and rebounds we witness the anguish and resilience of teenagers in trouble -- a fact of life for far too many American families today.

Combining powerful on-the-street reporting, groundbreaking research, and Maran's own mothering story, Dirty is essential reading for every parent and professional who works with or cares about children or teenagers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Meredith Maran’s Dirty: A Search For Answers Inside America’s Teenage Drug Epidemic is a moving study of America’s failure to address teen drug use. The book, which grew out of the author’s struggles with her own son’s addiction, throughout harmonizes a general analysis of America’s War on Drugs and drug treatment programs with a close study of three particular teens. Zalika, Mike, and Tristan offer no happy endings. For Tristan, a boy from a well-to-do family, even the loving treatment of Phoenix Academy cannot lead to a life free from chemical dependency. The prison-like therapeutic community of Center Point, meanwhile, seems only to drive Mike and his fellow addicts further into deception and isolation. A prostitute and sometimes addict, sixteen-year-old Zalika is eventually abandoned by her family and the drug court system as she watches her closest friends die around her.

Though the book offers horrifying statistics regarding the rise of teen drug use, Dirty’s stories of Zalika, Tristan, and Mike are the most effective exposition of America’s failure to serve its most needy citizens. With Tristan, Maran takes the controversial stand that some limited drug use may actually be helpful in the process of self-discovery. Through Mike, readers see the failure of the adult AA model for teens who are not ready to embrace change. With Zalika Maran observes that a diagnosis of drug addiction is often only a "partial diagnosis"--a means to get a troubled teen into treatment that inevitably ignores a host of family, socio-economic, and educational problems. Threaded throughout remains Maran’s personal longing to understand why and how her own son could have fallen prey to drugs…and how he was lucky enough to return sober. --Patrick O’Kelley

From Publishers Weekly

Maran (Class Dismissed) was herself the mother of a teenage drug abuser; she learned the hard way that there are no easy answers to the questions "Why do kids use drugs?" and "How can we help them?" "Nearly two-thirds of the teenagers in America today do drugs before they finish high school-one-third of them by the time they're in eighth grade," and none of the current programs, from DARE to detention camps to jails, have worked. Maran studies three leading treatment approaches by following three particular teenagers in care. The Center Point adolescent program separates kids from their families and friends to break bad habits and focus on behavior modification. The Phoenix Academy program keeps kids connected with their community and uses small classes, individual mentoring and AA/12-step participation to target addiction. Drug Court combines monitoring by court professionals with an after-school program of group therapy sessions, sports and drug testing. Unfortunately, the bottom line with youth programs-and these are better than most-is that they're hard and kids don't want to do them, so they run away, and there's no enforcement of participation. Indeed, none of Maran's subjects stayed with their programs-they all lapsed. Still, Maran learned enough to make some recommendations for improving teen care, outlined at the book's end. This is an insightful, compassionate look at the mistakes we are making with our teenagers.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; First Edition edition (September 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006008622X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060086220
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,729,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"A family's world is irrevocably rocked when an old female lover from Mom's past reappears, in Meredith Maran's sexy, audacious, politically charged, and sure-to-be-talked-about first novel, A THEORY OF SMALL EARTHQUAKES. Ah, l'amour, l'amour."--Vanity Fair, February 2012

"A THEORY OF SMALL EARTHQUAKES by Meredith Maran: a fictional parenting triangle that challenges assumptions."--Reader's Digest, February 2012

"Meredith Maran's wonderful new novel, A THEORY OF SMALL EARTHQUAKES, is what Franzen's Freedom would be, if it were free."--Rebecca Walker

I could not put A THEORY OF SMALL EARTHQUAKES down. Even with my eyes practically crossing at 2am, I had to know what was going to happen! And I found the ending -- the ambiguity of it -- very satisfying, even though I wanted to know more. It was true to life, painful, beautifully done. Very strong, believable characters who I won't soon forget.--Dani Shapiro

Meredith Maran is a book critic whose reviews appear in People, Salon, the Boston Globe, and the San Francisco Chronicle, an award-winning journalist, and the author of several bestselling nonfiction books, including Class Dismissed and What It's Like To Live Now. The mother of two sons and grandmother of the cutest baby on earth, she lives in Oakland with her wife. A Theory of Small Earthquakes is her first novel.

To reach Meredith:
[e-mail]
On Twitter: @meredithmaran

For more information:
http://www.meredithmaran.com/TheoryofSmallEarthquakes.htm

Author photo ©Lisa Keating Photography

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent work!, October 20, 2003

By 

Bryce Carter, Ph.D. "Bryce Carter, Ph.D." (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book on a difficult subject. Ms. Maran has performed all of us an importance service by truly listening and writing about the teenagers in this book & by sharing her own experiences. This work gets behind and beyond the statistics and media news reports. By the end of the book the reader will care deeply about the fate of these individuals and have come to a deeper understanding of their hopes, fears, and motivations. It is all too easy to remain distant & detached from this problem. Ms. Maran's writing is immediate, intense, and very personal. I would recommend this book to all parents, teachers, and mental health professionals.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dramatic insights into the teenage drug problem, October 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic (Hardcover)

If one has interest in America's vast drug problem,and particularly in its impact on one's own family, "Dirty" is a book for your immediate attention. Author Meredith Maran begins her report:"This is a book about why teenagers use drugs, what we're doing about it, why nothing seems to be working, and what we might do to solve--or at least look honestly at--the problem."
To gather the vital information, Maran virtually lived for two years with three afflicted teenagers, their families, teachers and counselors, and also called on her own experience as a parent of a teenage addict now "emerged from the tempest of his adolescence." What she witnessed, what she learned and what she advises is thoughtfully portrayed in this extremely valuable book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DIRTY is an essential read!, December 26, 2003

By 

lynn (Sonoma, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic (Hardcover)

As a mother of an 18 year old son who has used for most of his teen years, I found this book captivating. It was at times difficult to read as it hit so close to heart and home. Being on this journey with my son has been the most difficult period of my life.
This book is so important because it points out the frightning statistics for our troubled youth and how it affects our whole society. In addition, it addresses the importance of re-thinking our priorities. We need to show our children that they are our most valuable priority. Meredith Maran provides good insight as to what we can do to overcome this battle.
Even if your child isn't using (or if you don't have children), this book points out just how our teens are affecting you and your child. It is crucial America deal with this epidemic! This book a must read.