Warren Throckmorton

Speed is readily available at almost any gay bar (I would imagine the same is true for many straight bars) and the patrons usually know who is selling. At one tavern I frequented, "Sandy the lesbian" made no bones about the fact that she was dealing. She was almost like the good-humor man. Kinda looked like him too.

Many people looked forward to her arrival on Friday and Sautrday nights. She wore a red fanny pack which held the goods and money to make change. She did a brisk business and the bar owner knew all about it. Deals were made openly on the dance floor. Some us chopped lines with credit cards and snorted them right off the bar with a rolled up 20 dollar bill. It should not be very hard for the police to track down how Jones and Haggard got their drugs.
 

Anonymous... Speed is readily available at almost any gay bar ...

You seem to hang out at different bars than I do. Or maybe it is a matter of the city you're in (Although Tucson has a pretty significant meth problem overall right now). I haven't seen it to be nearly as open here you describe it -- I haven't actually seen it at all, in fact.

However, I have no doubt that a "massage therapist" (the kind which one can only spell correctly using quotes) probably has no problem whatsoever finding whatever his or her client may request.

According to the voicemail recordings, Haggard was looking for $100 to $200 more. Does anyone here know how far does $100-200 go these days? Is that a lot or a drop in the bucket?
 

Wow, anonymous, you ran in some pretty seedy bars.

Although it's probably likely that those who are looking for drugs can find them pretty easily all over the place, I've never seen or heard of anyone doing lines off the bar in any establishment I've ever been in. In fact, an open drug deal on the dance floor would be pretty much a guarantee that you'd be 86'd from "almost any gay bar" if not a pretty sure sign that you'd soon be arrested.

So I'm not really sure how you came up with that generalization about "almost any gay bar". But perhaps you frequent an entirely different type of "almost any gay bar".
 

Don't the police have better things to do instead of kicking this guy while he is down?
 

Speed is a huge problem in our area. The bars don't have to be "seedy". You just have to know who to know. I am not saying that it's as blatant at every bar as at the bar I mentioned, but it is still not very hard to score meth. Trust me on this.

Meth is a big problem in the gay community. 1/2 of all new HIV cases are meth related. The bar where I saw people doing lines was in Orange County, CA. The owners had a policy against drug use, but the assistant manager was one of Sandy's regular customers so he tended to look the other way.
 

Another reason to be happy that I don't live in Orange County.
 

Jim asked: "Does anyone here know how far does $100-200 go these days? Is that a lot or a drop in the bucket?"

It's quite a bit for one person. At today's prices, $200 would buy 1/8 of an ounce -- or roughly 3 or so "lines" every day for one month.

I have been in recovery from meth addiction for a number of years now. It cost me my home, my cars, my job, my friends and my self-respect.

A person would only buy "$200 MORE" if (1) he had a serious drug problem (2) wanted to keep a steady supply or (3) bought some to sell some and keep some for personal use. It's not what someone would buy to be "tempted and throw it away".
 

Don't be naive. Meth is everywhere. Not just seedy bars or Orange County. It's a national problem. And it is hitting the gay community hard.
 

Timothy Kincaid said: "It's probably likely that those who are looking for drugs can find them pretty easily all over the place."

Exactly. Users have something similar to what some people call "gaydar". It you are looking for speed, you know what to look for. A packet of speed in quite small (usually a little baggie the size of a postage stamp) and the transaction could go completely un-noticed by others at the bar, especially by those who were not drug users.

Sometimes, I snorted it at work at my desk. Or in the restroom. (I would use the cap of a bic pen as a sort of spoon to scoop a little out.) I have done this with unsuspecting people standing very close to me. You just "sniff" as though you had a cold and then pocket the cap of the pen.

I have dome this at work, in the restroom at nice cafes and at some very nice bars. It doesn't require any special equipment and it is very easy to conceal. You can do it anywhere. It doesn't have to be a seedy bar in Orange County.