Queen of Meth 1x2

1. The use of methamphetamine has sky rocketed over the past several years.

2. Boredom, loneliness, self-esteem.

3. When you do the drug, all that disappears.

4. She was a major supplier making $200,000 or more a week.

5. Taking a journey back to Ottumwa, Iowa,

6. where everything went down 30 years ago.

7. Remember this place?

8. Oh, my God!

9. Lori Stockdall was addicted to alcohol at 14,

10. as a result of her mother's influence.

11. Lori needs to get fucking angry at my mom.

12. Feel the pain of what happen to her.

13. What she did was wrong.

14. - You know... - No, no, she ruined her life!

15. She became a big-time drug dealer,

16. well, fuck right.

17. I was tired of living life struggling,

18. thought I deserved something, you know.

19. And then I got a way you can make a little money.

20. Methamphetamine.

21. When it hit it's like, all right I like this.

22. And it just started to snowball.

23. This is me and my husband Floyd.

24. We are at the river cabin.

25. This is Josh when he was little.

26. It was hard living.

27. We're broke, I mean we can't afford to go anywhere.

28. Can't afford anything, really.

29. I don't know. I was just stuck in a rut,

30. and didn't know how to get out.

31. So when Floyd's brother Mike came down

32. and the meth opportunity came,

33. it just... I don't know. It just rocked my world.

34. When you do the drug, and you feel more calm,

35. you feel tougher, you feel involved,

36. you're more social.

37. Gave me so much energy and competence and people loved it

38. because it got him out of their boredom and depression.

39. Floyd's brother Mike brought me down some more

40. and then he said, "you know what, instead of me just bring it down.

41. Let me introduce you to the guy I get it from."

42. This guy pulled up in my driveway in a white corvette

43. and I'm like, "Wow, that's nice car.

44. I'd love to have a car like that."

45. He has the keys in his hand and a quarter pound in the other hand.

46. He said, "Here." He gave me the keys, he gave me the quarter pound, he goes

47. "Sell that, car's yours."

48. It's like something you can't turn down. It was too good to be true.

49. Well, the quarter pound didn't last a long time.

50. It hit so hard around town, everybody wanted more.

51. They had people walk up, they just spread like wildfire.

52. Lori always had a lot of friends.

53. Especially when she was selling drugs, she was extremely popular.

54. It felt amazing.

55. Absolute magical cure for alcoholism

56. because you're so high you know you are not gonna get drugged.

57. It felt like I finally had the answer.

58. It's kind of pretty addictive right from the get go.

59. You do a little line and stay up for three, four days you know

60. so it's more bang for your buck. I just wanted more.

61. I couldn't sell enough. You know, 25 bucks here, 25 bucks there.

62. It might've just came in so fast

63. so I'm getting all this money and I have nowhere to put it.

64. Didn't have a bank account or anything, I didn't have a safe, but I had this

65. cheap paneling in my cabin,

66. that wasn't nailed right, so it's kind of stuck out little bit,

67. so I started stuffing money in there.

68. And I started making pretty good money. My wall was bulging for a while.

69. I thought well,

70. you know, I can kind of do the same thing for my friends

71. so they can make a little extra money.

72. Lori just asked me if I was interested in having my own,

73. and I said, "well sure, why not."

74. She front it to me and I paid for, what I paid for it.

75. And then partied with the rest, that's what I thought I was supposed to do.

76. They gave me some to sell, because they love me

77. and they're making money and they wanted me to make money.

78. You know, as a welfare mom before meth came in town.

79. Now all of a sudden we got spending money. You know, it felt really good.

80. Don't tell me that money doesn't bring happiness because it does.

81. And it did us.

82. Everybody was making money.

83. Everybody liked it, everybody's having fun.

84. Selling drugs came fairly easy to me.

85. Yeah, she moving her way up.

86. "Oh, man, this feels good.

87. I got people working for me.

88. Oh, we can do better, I can make more money

89. get more drugs."

90. We were starting to sell so much of it

91. and the guy that we were getting it from locally,

92. said he was going to introduce us to his guy,

93. and his guy was out in California.

94. And he was involved with the Mexican cartel.

95. So Floyd went and met the big supplier

96. because Floyd was very intimidating.

97. He was badass and he looked badass.

98. He knew how to talk to big people.

99. Floyd is a real deal.

100. Floyd would be bad to fight with.

101. Lori was the brains and mathematician and all that stuff

102. and Floyd was just the muscle.

103. She was intelligent enough to know how to make money work for her.

104. She became the brains of this big drug operation

105. where she had this badass biker husband of hers do her bidding.

106. Everybody used to say,

107. "no guts no glory, no Floyd, no Lori."

108. We got involved with the Mexican cartel,

109. because we could actually get pretty good deals with them.

110. We started out with one pound for $10,000.

111. I can turn it around to $40,000 when I got back with it.

112. Some, they would hold in from Mexico.

113. But they set up their own lab in California for making it.

114. So it seemed to be even better than what was coming across the border.

115. This stuff was so good that you had to cut it,

116. because it was too pure.

117. We didn't want anybody get hurt

118. so we made sure when we gave it to people selling for us

119. we also gave them the correct cut to cut it with,

120. so it would tamper it down just a little bit

121. so nobody would OD or anything like that.

122. It was gone too quick.

123. We had to turn around and go right back the next week

124. but we had enough profit from that one pound to get two pounds.

125. But then one time we're needing a lot more and the trips.

126. Every time you go out, you know, it's a three day driving thing.

127. There's a constant back and forth, back and forth.

128. So then we brought in other people that we trusted

129. to move bigger amounts themselves

130. so Floyd wouldn't have to go every time.

131. We didn't want to get detected by anyone

132. seeing us in the same vehicle that went out to California and Phoenix,

133. Arizona and you know places like that.

134. So we bought a piece of land, laid a slab.

135. Built a building to work on our vehicles.

136. Put a car lot in there, S&S Enterprises,

137. Went to auctions. Got some decent cars,

138. and hired a couple of guys to work in the shop, fix it up so we could sell it.

139. Because of the low price, big cars are once again selling in a big way.

140. Lend them to my friends because they needed vehicles,

141. I just sell 50 bucks a month, whatever they gave for it.

142. Ya, she gave my mom a car she give me one.

143. Mine was a little five speed Mazda.

144. I was buying a car from her and Floyd

145. I think I only gave her maybe like $500.

146. We can also switch out cars if we need to go to California

147. because the same car going out might be a bad thing.

148. So we wanted to kind of switch it out and use different vehicles too.

149. We started getting five pounds couple of times each month in California.

150. I had a guy that I dealt with about 20 miles away from town.

151. I would call him up,

152. because he was always good for the money, always wanted good quantity.

153. It was just a quick turnover.

154. So I'd say something about, "Hey, I'm gonna come over tonight

155. I'll bring pizza. How many piece do you want?"

156. You know, how many pounds of dope you want?

157. Two.

158. Okay.

159. Well, first I got to do some errands, stop at the store,

160. something new meet me at the constant easy in and out.

161. He didn't know people around here.

162. He didn't deal around here, he has his own territory.

163. We'd have people coming in from Illinois, Missouri, Kansas...

164. buying it and taking it back up.

165. This spread out pretty good.

166. She had something everybody wanted.

167. Everybody else really loves you more than they ever did.

168. You know, looking back on it, it was very fake

169. but it sure didn't seem like it at the time.

170. You know, got to where everybody and their brother wanted a lot of it.

171. I started thinking, you know what, I got money now,

172. I need to do something with it

173. so I don't have to sell the drugs.

174. I always wanted my own bar

175. and the union station was going up for sale.

176. I bought it for 40 grand, fully stocked.

177. I just wanted people to have a place to go,

178. that could have a good time, leave their cares behind

179. and just enjoy themselves.

180. Miss this place.

181. Bar, bathroom and dance floors over here.

182. Had a big ol' shuffle board table on the wall,

183. somebody want to play shuffleboard.

184. Office is in the back.

185. I named it "The Wild Side."

186. 'Cause Floyd like westerns, we watching a western,

187. called Wild Side. And I thought,

188. "man, that is a perfect name for bar."

189. Lori's was a real biker bar,

190. an actual biker bar.

191. Friday night, you park right out front, walk-in.

192. Bike from here, bike from here, bikes around the corner.

193. It was a popular bar, it was a good bar.

194. I wanted some place that everybody felt welcome.

195. We're bikers, you know, they're just a different breed of people.

196. They want to wear their jeans and leathers,

197. come in and drink and have a good time.

198. The rule is in the bar, if she had fun, everybody had fun.

199. I love socializing, I love people,

200. so I hired a lot of my friends.

201. My friend Lisa, now she's seen me in all different walks of life.

202. When I started working there, the people I met there

203. were decent, normal people.

204. Of course, they got leather coats on,

205. some of them with big beards and longer hair,

206. that was normal back then.

207. I was needing a job,

208. Lori was looking for trustworthy bartenders,

209. ones that weren't ripping her off every time she turned around.

210. 'Cause if you don't know about the bar business, the bartenders steal blind.

211. Yeah, this is where

212. come in my backdoor, we had the bandstand.

213. It was raised up so the band was set up a little higher than everyone.

214. She would hire these really good bands to come in there,

215. and thne place would just be packed with people, you know.

216. A play-room for dancing,

217. had tables and chairs set up here.

218. I had a little microphone behind the bar.

219. I'd sing along with the band once in a while

220. whether they wanted me to or not.

221. I can't sing.

222. Lori would have Halloween parties and

223. that was like her big deal to try to fool everybody.

224. This is me dressing... dressed up for Halloween.

225. I got the wig and I got heels and I'm wearing a dress and it's slit up the side.

226. Looking sexy and all this stuff.

227. So I walked up to the bandstand,

228. and said to the drummer, I said

229. Hi Rogers. He goes, "hey Lori."

230. I'm like, "how'd you know it was me?"Because I watched you walk up here."

231. She walks like a truck driver.

232. Lori don't do that in mage costume.

233. If there was trouble at the Wild Side, they handle everything in house.

234. Floyd was the muscle and power.

235. In case I needed it.

236. I mean, I pretty much handle my own, but men,

237. you know, don't respect woman running shit.

238. Right away.

239. He sat at the end of the bar,

240. his beard was long, and hung down over his arms and he just...

241. turned his head.

242. He would be one end of the bar,

243. I would be at the other, and you'd just see him pulsating.

244. He wanted to murder me.

245. And Lori would be between use like, calm down,

246. Floyd get back and she will be like,

247. Tommy, shut the fuck up.

248. Tom used to come down to see me, he went to Minneapolis.

249. Then he started doing standup.

250. You like, amateur nights and stuff like that,

251. when they had contests in different bars, up there.

252. Nobody will go with me, I had to go to my senior prom with my sister.

253. And, you know, everybody else is making out so,

254. I tackled her, farted on her head.

255. So, it turned out okay.

256. He won a couple, and then,

257. he met Roseanne,

258. she was up there listening to him, one time.

259. I left Ottumwa because the job I wanted to do,

260. was at Hollywood.

261. I met Roseanne when I was 23.

262. I was her middle act at comedy gallery,

263. and so we hit it off.

264. She liked his style and asked if he's interested in,

265. maybe coming to write for,

266. for Roseanne show.

267. Al little quick to the draw. She screws up a little bit.

268. She thought I was funny which is,

269. what you really want a woman to think about you because,

270. all men know we're good looking so, we already got that.

271. Leave me alone!

272. I said, Tommy, are you fucking her?

273. He's like, "no, no."

274. Roseanne and I, I don't know you read,

275. we are the perfect couple.

276. he like, would you? I'm like,

277. hell yeah, think her worth's like $50 million.

278. We like the same movies, read the same books.

279. We wear the same size pants, we're perfect couple, folks.

280. This picture is the picture of me and Roseanne.

281. This is the...

282. weekend they came to town and then came down to my bar.

283. She thought Lori was fun.

284. She thought Lori's friends were fun.

285. We'd get up, would my bands and play drums.

286. And when Roseanne came with him, she actually get up and sing,

287. first we all know she can't sing,

288. so she get up there dry, and everybody was, you know,

289. thought it was cool, because she was a huge star back then.

290. Everybody had fun here, I don't care,

291. they're rich, poor, they did drugs, and I didn't do drugs,

292. they were country, they were rock.

293. It's just like a neighborhood bar.

294. Anybody, and everybody came to the Wild side,

295. lot of bikers, lot of lawyers,

296. couple of judges coming in all the time.

297. Police officers even come in here, off duty.

298. People knew what went on in theWild Side.

299. And the cops knew. It wasn't no big secret.

300. They'd pass it through envelops,

301. and through paper cups, and matchboxs,

302. or we do it outside or go to the bathroom and do it.

303. I just told them, I don't wanna see it.

304. 'Cause I always had this worry,

305. about cops or feds or

306. snitches or, you know.

307. You always have that in your mind.

308. You know, I was planning on quitting, but you know

309. just like with any addiction, once you're in,

310. it's hard to get out.

311. It's a power thing, it really is.

312. I mean I'm an addict.

313. I get addicted to a lot of different things, not just drugs.

314. Sad to see it like this.

315. I mean, the fun, excitement,

316. just, I just miss it.

317. The only problem with the bar, was Floyd.

318. Floyd had a lot of names.

319. He was a sniper, in Vietnam.

320. in the green bridge.

321. He got shot and got released from the service.

322. A lot of the Grimm Reapers were meet on bar.

323. Vietnam really screwed his head up.

324. But the demons wouldn't come out unless he drank.

325. And somebody mentioned war.

326. But every time he was drinking,

327. and the war stuff started,

328. I was the one that got beat up.

329. If he start drinking hard liquor,

330. then you know, you never knew what was gonna happen.

331. But usually, it was Lori that bore the brunt of it.

332. You know, one minute you might all be partying, next minute,

333. you know, he is dragging around the door by the hair.

334. He back ended her time.

335. My eyes just got that big around, what am I gonna do?

336. You know, he could rip me in half.

337. We just did our best to try to keep Floyd in line.

338. We would tube him, with some meth,

339. put some in his drink.

340. Then he wouldn't be drunk and he would start talking more,

341. it was kind of like the insecure, you know, for Floyd.

342. I was home with Josh,

343. and I got a call from Scott Edmond

344. telling me that Floyd was drinking whiskey.

345. He's heading home drunk and pissed off,

346. he just walked in said,

347. How many do you want?

348. And I'm like, how many what?

349. He goes, bullets.

350. So he storms in the other room where his guns were,

351. when he did, I grabbed Josh.

352. And headed out the door,

353. and I went around my car to get into the driver side,

354. and Floyd appeared on the deck,

355. with his rifle.

356. He just shot and hit the hood of the car,

357. I ducked down with Josh behind the wheel.

358. And he shot again,

359. I started yelling, oh my, God, you hit Josh, you hit Josh.

360. And he stopped shooting.

361. And when he stopped, I just took off, I just ran.

362. Josh was young. He didn't talk much.

363. It's hard to make sense out of something like that.

364. She came over the next day and,

365. she was hiding from him, and so we were both scared.

366. You know there's very few times,

367. I have seen Lori cry.

368. I don't know if it's stubbornness or I don't know if it's just the abuse.

369. Wife syndrome thing, because lot of wives don't leave the abusive husband.

370. Or if it was just, I felt sorry for him.

371. When he was sorry the next day, he didn't remember,

372. he needed me there.

373. You know, to take care of him.

374. Wasn't like an everyday thing or every week.

375. But when it was, he was either shooting at me, trying to run me over the car.

376. It's just something snapped in him.

377. So...

378. Can't understand it.

379. In describing her abuse her effect, was flat.

380. She stated, I don't get mad at people.

381. I don't let things get to me.

382. This is a typical response of a post-traumatic stress and battered wife syndrome,

383. where individuals can experience a disconnectedness,

384. and a deep personalization,

385. and psychological numbing.

386. Do you think you are psychologically numb?

387. Yes.

388. I block things out.

389. I keep things inside.

390. In not attempting to escape,

391. she also participated in anything that would help

392. her relationship be calm and sedate

393. without the beatings.

394. I didn't want Floyd involved in the bar.

395. So I had to find something that he liked

396. but also stay out of my way.

397. So, I went looking for a ranch

398. 'cause he always wanted horses.

399. We are at my ranch

400. in Ottumwa, Iowa.

401. I bought this place in 1988,

402. paid $55,000.

403. It's a beautiful area.

404. It's 150 acres.

405. I surprised Floyd with it 'cause he didn't know about it

406. until I already purchased it.

407. So, I came out here and showed it to him, and...

408. we call it Rolling Hills ranch.

409. because of the rolling hills.

410. We used our meth money to buy everything, obviously.

411. We started with two horses,

412. we ended up with 52.

413. We were racing and training them.

414. Hired Scott Edmond to do most of the grunt work,

415. 'cause he was really good and he was a hard worker.

416. And he loved the horses.

417. Floyd says, "Can you do a duck walk?"

418. I said, "What do you mean 'Do a duck walk'?"

419. He said, "I'm looking for somebody

420. to train my horses."

421. He said, "I can't do it

422. because I'm too big and too old."

423. So, he had me duck-walking,

424. which is where you squat down on your knees,

425. or by your knees, and squat-walk.

426. Which will build up your knees. I did that

427. for so long.

428. I built that barn right there

429. so Scott could put the racehorses

430. in nice, clean stalls.

431. Well...

432. here we go.

433. - All these stalls are empty. - Oh, I know.

434. I put a lot of money into the racehorses,

435. hoping to get money back out.

436. But the more stuff you have, the more it costs you.

437. So it took more money.

438. So I had to keep selling meth.

439. I didn't have time to really reflect

440. on what I was doing or anything.

441. But I was starting to enjoy it.

442. We made 100,000 here, 100,000 there.

443. I'd carry around twenty grand in my purse

444. just for spare change, type-thing.

445. And people with money, they get more respect

446. than people that don't have it.

447. The thing that I remember most about Lori is

448. she used to drive around in really flashy cars.

449. And like, all young girls would see her in those cars

450. and be like, "Oh, I want that car."

451. So, I'm driving in the East End

452. I see this big, red Jaguar

453. and I was like, "Whoa!"

454. And then here's Lori out there,

455. hosing this thing off.

456. They told her nobody in this town

457. has a Jaguar.

458. I said, "Why don't you get a vanity plate

459. that says "Fuck me," you know.

460. I had a little Mazda RX-7.

461. And so, you know, she used to come pulled up in that,

462. and I'd just pull up next to her.

463. I said to her one time, I said

464. "Oh, Lori, somebody just said

465. that my car looked better than yours."

466. "No, they did not. No way!"

467. We'd just race around town

468. and we'd race the cops.

469. She never won. She didn't ever win.

470. I always won them, though.

471. She cheated. She tried to run me off the damn road.

472. No, I didn't. I tried.

473. I tried to win, but...

474. no. Her car was a pretty nice one.

475. They had everything.

476. Just had everything, and...

477. I'm living in some dive.

478. To say I wasn't jealous would be a lie.

479. 'Cause of course I was.

480. A lot of my friends were on welfare,

481. had little kids.

482. And I thought, "Well, you know what,

483. I'll get into real estate."

484. If I buy a house pretty cheap, I can fix it up,

485. and sell it to my friends on payment.

486. So, I started buying houses, like at auctions and stuff.

487. And I'd put them on Section eight housing.

488. So I was getting government checks

489. for each house.

490. And I was taking that check

491. and using it as a house payment

492. for my friends.

493. So they would own the house

494. once I had what I paid for it.

495. I wanted them to own their own home.

496. She knew that I'd just had a baby

497. and asked me if I, you know, needed a place to live,

498. and I said, "Sure, yeah."

499. She said, "Well, I got a place that we can remodel,

500. and you and your husband and daughter can live there."

501. I needed a place to stay at one time,

502. and she had just bought this house,

503. so I moved in there.

504. Lori was always really generous. I mean,

505. she always did a lot of things for all of the community.

506. It was like, almost like, I don't know,

507. a Robin-Hood scenario, kind of. You know?

508. All this meth comes in

509. and goes in to the rental, you know, housing industry.

510. It goes into licensing,

511. and insurance, taxes,

512. uh, social security.

513. I mean, all this money I made I spent in the same house.

514. I bought houses in the same town.

515. I employed people in that town.

516. So, money was being spread out.

517. I always helped my friends and everything else

518. but I don't know if I thought my friends were needy,

519. 'cause they didn't have a lot,

520. so I was helping them, or if I was the needy one

521. and helping them made me feel better.

522. I didn't want to be a drug dealer all my life.

523. But once you have so much stuff,

524. like the bar, and the car lot, the ranch,

525. you're paying a lot.

526. It just snowballs, you know?

527. We were needing a lot more quantity.

528. My first ten-pound batch.

529. I had two guys go out and get it.

530. The driver liked to smoke pot.

531. So, while he was out there, he picked up a pound of pot.

532. He had the ten pounds of meth in a bag

533. with like, hamburger wrappers

534. and stuff on top, trash on top of it.

535. They got stopped on the way back in Utah.

536. Some kind of a roadblock check or something.

537. And the dog smelled the marijuana.

538. They open the trunk, there there was pot

539. underneath the spare tire.

540. So, then they tore the car apart

541. and found the ten pounds of meth.

542. They took him to the jail there in Utah.

543. I had to hire a bondsman

544. and come up with $50,000

545. to get him out of jail, and hire a lawyer.

546. They ended up doing 30 days.

547. But then we just thought, "Okay, well,

548. we got lucky on that one."

549. And that cost us 150 grand, right there.

550. Plus, they had ten pounds of dope in the car

551. and a pound of weed.

552. We lost all the money, so we needed to do something

553. to build it back up,

554. and not have to travel across the country.

555. That was kind of our turning point right there.

556. And we decided to cook our own on our property

557. so we didn't have to drive to California

558. you know, to get it.

559. So, I ended up hiring my own chemist

560. and ordered a whole meth lab out of the catalog.

561. So, we got the catalog out, start ordering everything,

562. and I just ordered under our S&S Enterprises

563. with my car lot name.

564. They deliverED the equipment by UPS.

565. We put it all together.

566. And the lab cost, you know, about 30 grand.

567. And it was all computerized. It was a computerized lab.

568. It was enclosed. It had all the test tubes

569. the pyrex, everything.

570. We would order P2P

571. which came in a 55-gallon drum

572. from Albuquerque.

573. And that makes the real methamphetamine.

574. That is the Breaking Bad methamphetamine.

575. Well, we went up the hill of our property,

576. and we took the dozer up there and dug out a big hole,

577. where we could put the little camper in,

578. so it was covered if anybody flew over.

579. It wasn't just the bathtub gear

580. that these hillbillies make the meth

581. and get the suit and pants from the drug store.

582. You know, it was a laboratory down there.

583. I liked to sell the best.

584. I wanted the best.

585. It took a chemist three days to cook a good batch.

586. Then he would shoot it up

587. to make sure it was a good batch.

588. If it killed him, I didn't want it killing my friends.

589. So, that was the deal.

590. And then he'd bring it down when he was done.

591. And he was gone.

592. So, you know, nobody saw him. Nobody knew he was there.

593. Nobody knew anything about it.

594. About ten pounds of meth, we can make $400,000.

595. We could make a couple batches a week

596. So it was doubling the product.

597. If you're driving to California,

598. it'd take us a week to go out and then come back.

599. Well, now, every three days,

600. you'd go up and make more.

601. Methamphetamine addiction is

602. now an epidemic across the Midwest.

603. It was once a West coast problem,

604. manufactured mainly

605. by motorcycle gangs in California.

606. People have friends everywhere

607. and it just spread pretty quick.

608. We had a truck driver on call

609. that anytime we'd need him, he'd haul anything out.

610. Yeah. So, I couldn't tell you exactly how many states.

611. It could've been the whole United States.

612. If you had to locate ground zero,

613. in the explosive use of a killer drug

614. called methamphetamine

615. would you name the state of Iowa?

616. She could buy whatever she wanted.

617. She even had airplanes.

618. You know? She had ultra-lights.

619. It was just crazy.

620. I mean, I had diamonds.

621. Huge diamonds on every finger.

622. She told me if I wanted a bunch of diamonds,

623. how to get them.

624. I know what you like, from selling drugs.

625. We had paintball wars.

626. We had people coming out here out of state to do paintballs.

627. If we went there, you might as well be planning

628. on staying two or three, four days

629. partying just every day, all night long.

630. I mean, there was no holding back!

631. We three, Tom, Lori and me are very compulsive.

632. And then add tranq to that or whatever,

633. it's, you know, it's not a good deal.

634. Think you did a good job with these, guys.

635. Sure, I held them there for you.

636. Tom and Roseanne came to town

637. and they were staying at my dad's house.

638. Lori would open her purse and she goes,

639. "What do you want?"

640. I go, "What do you got?"

641. She'd have every kind of drug.

642. I hooked him up with an eight ball

643. of Peruvian Flake cocaine, which is really, top line.

644. And I get the mirror out for him

645. so he can get him a line.

646. So he dumps this eight-ball out on the mirror.

647. He starts chopping it up and everything.

648. So, we're all sitting around,

649. you know, waiting for a line, too,

650. because, you know, you always share when you get stuff.

651. So, he takes it and then he just snorts

652. the whole eight-ball.

653. All of it.

654. Which is crazy,

655. because that's a lot of cocaine at one time.

656. So, he left, and then I get a phone call

657. from Roseanne 'cause he went back to dad's house.

658. And she goes, "What did you do to your brother?"

659. I'm like, "Well, I didn't do anything to my brother. What?"

660. Well, he was laying in bed, he was turning all red,

661. shaking, and you know.

662. Well, yeah. He did an eight-ball of cocaine.

663. But I didn't want to tell her that, you know?

664. And she wasn't into cocaine.

665. That was... that was crazy.

666. I'll never forget that one.

667. Dang! I've been doing drugs for my whole life,

668. and I even wouldn't do an eight-ball of cocaine.

669. Roseanne finally put her foot down,

670. and she said, "It's either you get off cocaine

671. and I'll marry you and take your last name.

672. But otherwise, no."

673. So, he went into rehab, recovery, whatever,

674. and got away from it. And then they got married.

675. How about a nice kiss?

676. Okay. One.

677. I went into rehab.

678. I just knew I cannot do drugs. I cannot drink.

679. I cannot do anything.

680. I just put my head down, and one day at a time.

681. For the next year, I did not want to see my sister.

682. She was a drug dealer.

683. He wanted me to stop selling as much.

684. It's just like somebody quits smoking,

685. and they bitch about the cigarette smoke, you know.

686. I said, "Tom, stay the fuck out of my life, okay?"

687. Or, "Don't preach to me." You know?

688. She was like, "I'm a kingpin. I'm not an addict."

689. It was just so easy to bring in

690. hundreds of thousands of dollars.

691. It was too easy.

692. I wasn't thinking how it was going to affect

693. people's families, or, you know, even my own.

694. "Queen of Meth" is how

695. people that don't know my mom see my mom.

696. She had this reign of drug-dealing

697. and cars and drugs, and you know,

698. lavish living or whatever, but, you know,

699. from the inside looking out, she was my mom, Lori.

700. I was kind of a momma's boy.

701. I'd go to store with my mom, we'd go run errands.

702. Honestly, I would probably go with her on her drug deals,

703. but, you know, not really know it.

704. I tried to keep the drugs away from Josh.

705. So he didn't see them.

706. I didn't have anything laying out

707. if he was home.

708. If we were going to sit at a table

709. and do lines or something,

710. you know, I'd send him outside.

711. But, kids are smart.

712. And they know something's going on.

713. There's a lot of times where she was like,

714. "Oh, stay up in your room." Or, you know, "Stay outside!"

715. You know, they wanted to keep me occupied.

716. I remember he asked me

717. one time I was taking him to school,

718. "Mom," he says,

719. "everybody's selling something."

720. He says, "Kimmy is—" His little friend.

721. "Kimmy is selling candy bars.

722. Sandra is selling candles.

723. And we're selling little bags of tea."

724. He says, "How come we're selling

725. little bags of tea, mom?" I'm like...

726. I'm like, "Uh-oh."

727. I said, "Well... it's imported."

728. After I had seen them doing it,

729. I kinda put two and two together.

730. I'd ask my mom to stop, and she probably gave me

731. some sort of bullshit answer.

732. You know? Like, that she wasn't doing it.

733. Or, you know. Or, it's not a big deal.

734. It's hard to pay a lot of attention to your kids

735. when you got a lot of people in the house,

736. and a lot of chaos going on.

737. From a very young age,

738. my parents were drug users.

739. When I was young, it was hidden from me.

740. And it was hidden as best as it could be hidden.

741. But you still knew.

742. There was a lot of things. We were out late doing things

743. that, you know, a second-grader,

744. third-grader shouldn't have been.

745. Floyd was actually my mom's cousin.

746. She was a single mom with five kids.

747. And I think she did what she needed to do

748. to survive, and part of that was selling meth.

749. Everybody in our house knew

750. that that's what, you know, my mom did.

751. I don't even remember what happened.

752. But I decided to shoot up one night.

753. And it was...

754. ten times the high that was snorting it, to me.

755. And I knew I'd never snort another line.

756. And I don't think I did.

757. I was just selling enough to support my habit.

758. My habit got pretty expensive.

759. And I lost everything we owned.

760. I don't know how many times. I really don't.

761. I dragged my son to some of, you know,

762. the worst places you can take your kids.

763. I knew...

764. Um...

765. I knew I didn't deserve a better life.

766. But I knew my son did.

767. It got to where I couldn't hardly look him in the eye.

768. 'Cause I see the pain on that kid's face,

769. you know? And I just, I had to do more.

770. It was like, I can't look at that.

771. I can't stay sober. I've tried.

772. And, so, you know, I really thought

773. I was probably going to have to die from it or kill myself.

774. Drug addiction is a disease.

775. It's always very selfish when it affects kids.

776. Growing up, when I was young,

777. I didn't have a mother in my house...

778. because of addiction.

779. I wish I had that.

780. But this is what we do

781. if we aren't aware, we repeat the mistakes.

782. I never realized it was a problem,

783. 'cause everybody always seemed to be having a good time.

784. Because nobody was

785. - honest with you. - Right.

786. Everybody was pumping you up 'cause you had the dope.

787. - Yeah. - Everybody was

788. who they thought you wanted them to be.

789. When you start using drugs,

790. in my opinion, it's just a snowball effect.

791. You use the drugs and you can afford the drugs

792. at the beginning, but then you get an addiction.

793. And now, maybe you're stealing to get the drugs.

794. Or you're pawning your things to get the drugs.

795. Then you have a huge problem.

796. Drugs are menacing our society.

797. Nancy's joining me

798. because the message this evening is

799. not my message,

800. but ours.

801. It was almost a ripe, perfect storm,

802. for that to take place,

803. economically, with what was happening in the community.

804. They're threatening our values

805. and undercutting our institutions.

806. They're killing our children.

807. Methamphetamine is one of the most deadliest

808. degrading drug I've ever seen.

809. What will you do when someone offers you drugs?

810. Just say no!

811. If you face this evil, this will be nothing

812. but a handful of useless chemicals.

813. Then all of a sudden,

814. they put a government stop on the P2P.

815. You had to actually go through a screening

816. and fill out all these forms,

817. it was kind of like buying a gun in a way,

818. in order to get the chemicals.

819. So, we stopped cooking in the lab.

820. But we ended up going back out to California.

821. But then things started...

822. started getting bad.

823. I think she was being

824. a little too out there with it.

825. She was out there, cutting lines out

826. on her hood of her car,

827. which, to me, was a little outrageous for Lori.

828. And I called her on that,

829. and she got mad at me for that.

830. Shit rolls downhill,

831. you know, and it's gonna come back on you,

832. and she didn't want to hear that, you know?

833. I was out there on the ranch.

834. Me and my mom both seen like, brake lights,

835. for one second, low to the ground.

836. And, so we left.

837. And then I called Lori and told her,

838. and she's like, "Oh, wow, woman. You're so paranoid."

839. We noticed certain things.

840. Cops, strange cars,

841. helicopters.

842. And then once in a while, somebody come in the bar,

843. that looked, you know,

844. different. But I got along good with the cops.

845. And my stepdad was a cop.

846. He was the Chief of Detectives.

847. My cousin is a cop. He ended up

848. being Chief of Police.

849. So, I thought, as long as nobody's getting hurt

850. and it wasn't being... you know, thrown out

851. where everybody can see it, whatever,

852. they just kinda overlooked it.

853. Lori thought that law enforcement was

854. either turning a blind eye,

855. or didn't care about her activities.

856. But what Lori didn't know was

857. that it couldn't be further from the truth.