The production, distribution, use, and criminalization of "crank" is central to the conflict in Winter's Bone. A slang term for methamphetamine, crank—also known as meth—is a highly addictive central nervous system stimulant drug that has been the subject of wide-scale law enforcement crackdowns in the Missouri Ozarks region where the novel is set.
Appearing in powdered or crystal-like rock forms, methamphetamine is either smoked, snorted, injected, or ingested. The nervous system stimulation, or "rush," is intense, leading users to take repeated doses in a binge and crash pattern. Short-term effects of meth use include suppressed appetite, increased energy, and a false sense of happiness, while long-term users often experience, among other problems, mood swings, violent behavior, delusions, dangerous levels of weight loss, dental issues, and skin sores.
Methamphetamine is produced through the chemical combination of medicinal amphetamines, such as common cold remedies, cooked with toxic substances such as drain cleaner, battery acid or antifreeze. The drug is commonly made in illegal laboratories, known as meth labs. In 2004, police seized over 24,000 meth labs in the United States, with close to 3,000 in Missouri. At the time, Missouri was considered the "meth capital of the U.S." because it consistently topped the list of American lab seizures.
Efforts by law enforcement, including a 2005 federal law regulating the retail sale of over-the-counter medicines containing the amphetamine pseudoephedrine, led to a nationwide decline in the ubiquity of meth labs. In 2017, the number of U.S. lab seizures dropped to 2,500, with 91 in Missouri.
Despite the sharp fall in U.S. production of the drug, meth use continues to be a problem in the country, with Mexican-made meth being trafficked across the border to meet demand.
