Author: Meredith Maran
From the publisher:
Why do teenagers use drugs, what do we do for them, does any of it work, how can we get them to stop? And what does teenage drug use tell us about what's wrong in America?
These are the questions posed, and answered, in DIRTY. In page-turner, novelistic style, the book tracks the course of three very different kids in three very different programs:
Mike, a 17-year-old, white working-class crack user who begins his recovery in, then runs away from, a residential rehab, spends three months in Juvenile Hall, then returns to dealing and using crack.
Tristan, an affluent white 15-year-old pot, pill, and mushroom user and survivor of two stints at a "wilderness program," who's now enrolled in a Marin County "sober high school."
Zalika, a 16-year-old middle-class African American who was a prostitute and crack dealer until she agreed to enroll in a drug court and counseling program-from which she is now AWOL, hiding out from the law.
The book weaves together the three kids' stories, the author's own story of mothering her two teenage sons-one of whom was arrested nineteen times during his teenage years-and investigative reporting about the causes, prevalence, and "cures" for teenage drug addiction. For more information, see the publisher's website.
Meredith Maran is the best-selling author of Class Dismissed: A Year in the Life of an American High School, a Glimpse Into the Heart of a Nation. Her previous books include the memoirs What It's Like To Live Now and Notes From An Incomplete Revolution: Real Life Since Feminism, Ben & Jerry's Double Dip: How to Lead With Your Values and Make Money Too, and a children's book, How Would You Feel If Your Dad Was Gay? Meredith has written for publications including O-The Oprah Magazine, Vibe, Mademoiselle, Salon.com, Self, Teacher, Parenting, Utne Reader, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Jose Mercury-News.
The book is available at Amazon.com and in bookstores nationwide.
(Purchases from Amazon.com that originate on this website benefit Join Together. More info)
Boston University School of Public Health 
