Women on Ice: Methamphetamine Use Among Suburban Women

Acknowledgments

xv Acknowledgments Some who read this book might change their views on drug users and the decisions they make regarding drug policy. For the women I interviewed, any positive results stemming from this book based on their lives will be too late to have much influence on them. Although the women received a small recompense for their time and the difficult emotional work of recounting painful and challenging periods of their lives, it was merely a token of respect for the knowledge they imparted. More than a few of the women told me, “We are doing this to help others.” I hope that my honest portrayal of their candidly told stories provides a more humane justice in the lives of those who come after them. I would like to thank many people for their help with this book, but first among them are the women who shared their lives and stories with me, to whom this book is dedicated. Next I want to thank Claire E. Sterk and Kirk W. Elifson, who believed in me when I was a nontraditional graduate student and mentored me to a career in drug research. Claire served as an advisor on the two research studies I conducted to collect the data needed for this book. Additionally, I am especially appreciative of Annette Bairan, coinvestigator on one of the studies , who conducted most of the focus groups and read through the first very rough draft of this book, and Elle Ballard, my colleague and friend, who helped collect data on community services when I was too emotionally involved to do this objectively. I want to express great thanks and appreciation to my research staff, starting with David Gibson, a student with incredible insight on life and politics, who worked in various research roles, including ethnographer, interviewer, transcriber, coder and writer throughout both studies; Ben Tyndall, the best project manager in the world, who organized the mountain of data into controllable files and kept me focused; Denise Woodall, a woman with extraordinary energy and resiliency, who continually reminded me of the broken state of our social services, health services, and legal aid for the poor; and Nick Zeller, Sarah Goehler, and Jason Rodriquez, temporary research assistants of excellence. I also greatly appreciate Jan Morian, my intern and friend, who checked my references and conducted a final reading of the manuscript with great attention to detail. Of course, I thank the anonymous reviewers who offered suggestions on my proposal and favorably reviewed the submitted manuscript, and the Rutgers University Press editors. One of the findings of this book is the devastating effect methamphetamine use has had on suburban families, so it is with a deeper appreciation of family that I thank my husband, Michael, who showed his love and support by cooking my meals, doing the weekly shopping, and helping me find my way when I was lost in the suburbs before I had a GPS. I also thank my daughter, Jasmine Boeri, who spent a week holed up in a cottage during her vacation time to read an earlier draft of this book with an outsider’s fresh perspective. Finally, I thank the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for providing the funds to conduct this research, and NIDA program officer, Elizabeth Lambert, a defender of research on women. Through generous support from NIH, the voices of the most disempowered and vulnerable individuals in our society can be heard, and progress toward a more socially just and healthy society can be possible. This research was funded by award numbers 1R15DA021164 and 2R15DA021164. Views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of NIDA. Acknowledgments xvi Women on Ice ...