Speed Demons

METHAMPHETAMINES ARE RIPPING ACROSS ASIA, SEDUCING THE YOUNG WITH A PROMISE OF A FAST, CLEAN HIGH. KARL TARO GREENFELD VISITS ONE OF THE REGION'S WORST DRUG SLUMS AND COMES TO TERMS WITH THE DEADLY DO

Jacky talks about killing him, slitting his throat from 3 till 9 and hanging him upside down so the blood drains out of him the way it ran from the baby pigs they used to slaughter in her village before a funeral feast. He deserves it, really, she says, for his freeloading, for his hanging around, for how he just stands there, spindly legged and narrow chested and pimple faced with his big yearning eyes, begging for another hit.

She has run out of methamphetamine, what the Thais call yaba (mad medicine), and she has become irritable and potentially violent....

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