Move Over Jobu, Meet… Shabu

I’m usually really bad about reading articles online. My attention span is such that, if it’s more than a page… I’ll tell myself I’ll read it later, but never do.

That said. Once I started reading this article, I couldn’t stop. One page after the next, start to finish. I just got sucked in.

It comes wrapped in red foil and purple tissue, this intricate figurine molded in the form of a Japanese demon, with clawed feet, a mane of fire and a thick tongue jutting from a bloodthirsty smirk. Transparent, the size of a child’s fist, it looks like a tiny ice carving or a statuette of glass. It is neither. In fact, it is 25 grams (a little less than one ounce) of nearly 100 percent pure crystallized methamphetamine hydrochloride, known on the streets of Asia as “Shabu.”

It’s an old piece (written in 2003), but it was posted on MetaFilter today, and I thought it worthy enough to share. If it can get me to read it through in one shot, I figure it might pull you in, too.