I mentioned this before, but the one person I have known that was really into meth was a girl in college. Her name was Kate, we called her "Hot Kate". After maybe six months to a year of regular meth use she was no longer Hot Kate but "Scary Kate". It's a dangerous drug and I do think Breaking Bad hasn't done enough to show how quickly it can screw someone up. The show doesn't glorify drug dealers though, in fact they're portrayed as being pretty despicable people. If anything the DEA agent Hank seems like one of the more "normal" characters on the show. -sort of. Great show. Edit: Also, I don't disagree that the state is at its most powerful when the citizenry is ignorant and disenfranchised. But, I do fail to see how a show like Breaking Bad has lifted any sort of societal veils.
The show has (I think deliberately) shown very little about the use/abuse of meth. I agree with most of what you say here, but I don't agree that "Breaking Bad hasn't done enough..." They produce entertainment; the show would be lessened, cheapened if you will, if they injected anti-use messages. I'm pretty sure TV shows in the USA can get some kick-backs for inserting "drugs are bad" messages, but they don't seem to be focused on that at all in BB, except when it's important for the story (i.e. Pinkman's relapse).
I definitely agree that BB should always serve the story first and not some agenda to educate people on the horrors of drugs. Still, Most of the meth users in the show just look like they're a bit tired after partying super hard. They're rarely toothless and pencil thin, aged well beyond their years. Except the one prostitute character, but then she was a crack head, right? Anyways, I agree -serve the story. They do this very well.
As, I suspect, meth users ARE in real life. Not every meth user turns in to a candidate for "faces of meth". I know a guy who has told me he meth-binges (for weeks at a time sometimes), but only once in a while. Looks perfectly healthy.Most of the meth users in the show just look like they're a bit tired after partying super hard. They're rarely toothless and pencil thin, aged well beyond their years.
That's fair. When you have a sample of one, it's not exactly a good window in to the effects of something.