When I Wear My Alligator Boots

Shaylih Muehlmann's ethnography examines how narco-culture shapes identities, economies, and patterns of drug use in border communities.

Focusing on methamphetamine, she links addiction to labor conditions, migration, and social aspirations among people involved in low-level narcotics economies.

The book combines vivid fieldwork, personal narratives, and theoretical insight to show how drugs intersect with culture and livelihoods.

Muehlmann highlights how pleasure, status, and economic necessity complicate moralizing accounts of drug use.

Her work illuminates the structural and cultural forces that produce and sustain substance use in borderland settings.