Locked In with Ian Bick - Ex-Meth Dealer on How He Got Taken Down, Sent to Prison & Became a Politician | Reed Byers

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Reed Byers shares how he went from dealing meth to being taken down by law enforcement, serving time in prison, and ultimately turning his life around to become a politician. He reveals the highs and lows of the drug trade, the moment everything fell apart, and how he transformed his past into a force for change. #MethDealer #PrisonToPolitics #TrueCrime #RedemptionStory #DrugTrade #CriminalJustice #SecondChances #politicaljourney Thank you to NORDVPN for sponsoring today's episode: To get the best discount off your NordVPN plan - go to https://nordvpn.com/ianbick which will also give you 4 extra months on the 2-year plan. There's no risk with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! Connect with Reed Byers: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reed.byers/ Website: https://sites.google.com/view/reedbyers/home Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Buy Merch: https://convictclothing.net/collections/convict-clothing-x-ian-bick Timestamps: 00:00:00 From Addiction to Motivation: A Story of Transformation 00:05:24 Overcoming a Troubled Past: High School Struggles and Substance Abuse 00:11:04 Overcoming Family Challenges 00:17:18 Overcoming Self-Doubt and Choosing a New Path 00:22:57 Wild Journey from West Virginia to North Carolina 00:28:54 Overcoming Homelessness and Delusions 00:35:00 Coping with Family Challenges and Addiction 00:41:01 From Addiction to Nashville: A Journey of Struggle and Change 00:47:05 Journey into Meth Addiction 00:53:36 The Struggle of Methamphetamine Addiction and Distribution 00:59:36 The Impact of Drug Charges and Misunderstandings 01:05:54 Levels of Prison Security and Inmate Experiences 01:12:00 The Challenge of Impartial Juries in Today's Society 01:17:50 Life in Prison: Entrepreneurship and Survival 01:23:05 Overcoming Political Setbacks 01:28:49 Campaigning Strategies and Community Engagement Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reid, welcome to Lockton. We've been talking about doing this for a while. Shout out to Kyle Overmeyer, who connected us, right? Shout out to K.O. The corrupt sheriff, the dirty sheriff. That's it, man, got caught up with drugs, came home, turned his life around, helping people in addiction. How did you meet him? You know, West Virginia and Ohio border. So I don't know, somebody shared his stuff on Facebook, and I saw that he's a motivational speaker, and I started my business like over two years ago. And I'm like, man, like there's a motivational speaker local.

Like, let me learn from him. And we connected. And, you know, he said, you know, you want to go on these podcasts. I'm like, yeah, of course. So shout out Ian Bick now. Yeah, yeah. I had him in our old studio up in like the Pekipsy area last year. And his episodes actually come to like the spotlight recently. Like people keep looking at it and stuff, which is really cool. It's a good one. We always rip them for wearing that tight shirt that day during the episode. He generally has a tight shirt on me. He likes to show up those muscles. Yeah, that's funny. So what kind of business do you own? Do you want to plug that in at all? Yeah, yeah. I'm a motivational speaker for. time. I do some consulting too with different nonprofits, trying to drive advancement, like,

especially in the youth and mental health arena, trying to focus on, like, the social issues that led me to, you know, be in prison, trying to prevent those in the future. Do some coaching, some group coaching, trying to help people turn their life around. That's awesome. And where can people find that if they need to reach out? Yeah, yeah, my website, rebuyers.com. I'm on Facebook, LinkedIn, so they can reach me. I'm going to give out my cell number. I was talking to, or not my, yeah, yeah, I was talking to Kyle about, coming on the podcast. And he said, I still have people hit me up today about that. And I was like, how? He said, I put my number out there. I'm like, you don't get a bunch of, you know, who knows? And he said, yeah, you get a mix of people. And I put it out there with

politics before, so why not? But yeah, they can reach me on myself. I'm going to throw it out 304, 952-6555. And then my email is change agent at rebuyers.com. Cool. And we'll have all that in the description of the episode too for people. I like plugging people stuffing in the front. Everyone, when you go in a podcast that's at the end, and I don't know how many people actually make it to the end. Normally I'll shut it off when they start listing everything. I'm like the episode's over. And I'm very selective with what I click on for episodes.

It's got to be something really interesting or inspiring. I like Jay Shetty. I listen to a lot. Love J. Shetty. Episodes like The Alice and a Rogan, depending on what the episode is, that's kind of like the similar format to mine in the sense where there's so many episodes that come out, you could pick and choose. If you don't like this one, well, there's another option here. I think that's a better way to do it.

rather than just doing one episode a week. And if the person doesn't like it, they're not listening to Locked in for that week. Right. So that's kind of like the mindset behind it. Did you grow up in West Virginia? I did. Yeah, I lived there for about 12 years.

It's interesting. I spent some time in North Carolina, Eastern North Carolina, too. That's where my mom's from. And my dad met her at the beach. He was down there on vacation. And he told the story of her, like, dancing through a drive-thru that he was waiting at in the morning.

And something about her energy caught him. He went back to West Virginia. They talked on the phone for who knows how long. And next thing you know, moved through up there and they married. So grew up in a small town, St. Mary's when I was real young and then Parkersburg, West Virginia, it's one of the top like five or six big cities in West Virginia, about 30,000 people. But yeah, my childhood, you know, was mixed. Was somewhat, you know, gifted when it comes to like IQ and academics and stuff was involved in a lot of sports.

Mom was a nurse. Dad was like a plant supervisor, like a maintenance supervisor. So there were a lot of good years like a lot of good years you know me my brother my sister had christmases and stuff but as i got older 8 9 10 i started to realize like you know something's not necessarily right here like why are the cops at the house all the time like why are mom and dad screaming like why are they beating the shit out of each other is it okay that i cuss on here of course i typically don't um but this is a different setting yeah like why are they beating the shit out each other like i go to school and kids don't necessarily know what that's about so um yeah when i was 12 mom threatened out with divorce and said, you know, either we moved in North Carolina

and you find a job down there, I'm leaving you. So we went. So we're in like this single wide trailer down in North Carolina and he gets a job driving truck. And things were turbulent there. I remember like we were stuck at the trailer and nobody was there. I didn't know where our parents were. No food in the cabinets.

My sister found out after a couple days that we were there by herself. So she came and got us and brought us some food and stuff. Looking back at it, dad was out somewhere getting hammered drunk because mom was at the bar somewhere where she met, you know, a cocaine dealer who became her boyfriend of 15 years, and I still love him to death, you know, is my stepdad, basically. But that's how the relationship severed and ended. So North Carolina, there's a lot of back and forth between West Virginia during my teenage years,

and eventually I ended up in St. Mary's West Virginia, which is where I'm with the high school. And I remember I was sitting on the steps of my grandma's porch with my dad, and we were smoking some cron out of a one hitter that was like a bolt. And mind you, I'm like 14 at the time. And I was like, dad, I've really missed you. Like life with mom was crazy down here. Like Zach caught his felony at 17. That's my brother.

And like, you know, she's just, she's just nuts. He said, well, you can come up here and go to school if you want, but you got to stay all four years. And I'm like, all right. And I moved and I did. You know, me and dad had that type of relationship where, you know, when we smoked weed together and like he would buy my cigarettes and we'd have the friends over. And I remember one time, man, I've never told this story publicly. But we called it the Hoover, right? We clipped the vacuum hose off of the vacuum cleaner,

and we put aluminum foil on the end of it, and poked holes in it. And there's me and six other kids from high school just roasting bowls off of this Hoover vacuum. And it became an inside joke amongst the circle. The Hoover Bowl. The Hoover, man. That's so funny.

We're going to go over and hit the Hoover after school when we sure did. There was another one. It was like a three-inch piece of PVC pipe. It was a hook, and we called it Captain Hook, and we had melted a bowlhead into it, and you'd put your hand on the, end of it and you would just roast it. Yeah, I was a big stoner when I was in high school.

And it was interesting, man, because I did well in school. Had a lot of promise, you know, teachers looked at me with respect. I tried to be a good student. Was involved in Science Bowl. I was involved in academic team. I got involved in tennis, youth leadership stuff. But when I went home, I was smoking a ton of weed and drink it on the weekends. Like, that's what I had seen for so long since, you know, I was 10, 11, 12 years old. You know, mom had a cocaine addiction. started when she was 16, I found out. She died back in like 2018. No, no, no, excuse me, 2021.

It's just been a couple years. And then talking to some of her friends that she developed that cocaine addiction at 20, my head, 16. So to see, like, the way her mental illness kind of progressed in the way she acted and then to see addiction played such a large part in it, like, I get it. And it makes sense that kind of like my childhood developed the way that it did. But something had to give eventually.

I remember I was taking a trig test when I was like, 17 and I was always really good at math, but I couldn't figure it out. Like, I couldn't hardly read it. I couldn't do the problems. I'm thinking like, what the hell is the problem? And I'm like, oh, shit, like I haven't been doing my work for almost a couple years down. I've been cruising by. So I stormed out the classroom, punched a locker, punched a wall, collapsed in my counselor's office.

And I said, like, Ms. Hott, I can't keep doing this. Like, you guys are looking at me like I'm some scholar, like I'm supposed to go off to college, and I can't pass my trig test. And here's why. And I come out about the way I've been living for a couple of years because, like, I didn't want to dime my dad out. You know, it's none of the school's business. But also, you know, and it's my responsibility. I wasn't doing my schoolwork and shit.

But also, like, the home life wasn't conducive. You know, if he's at the bar of Main Street running up a tab and nobody's home and we're smoking joints together, like maybe I should try and change that. So we ran an intervention. I had my aunt, my uncle, my cousin, my tennis coach come, and we broke the news to my dad. about like hey there's nothing against you still love you but like read you know we want him to succeed and we're going to change things up for a while so I went and live with my aunt and it was interesting man like we talk about how the family life and the drugs the minimum illness and stuff led to me needing an intervention to make better decisions but when I went to my aunts

and I had that opportunity like I still wanted to smoke cigarettes and rub stuff and run off and be disobedient so that didn't work out you know six or eight months and And finally, she had told me I couldn't stay there anymore. I remember I came home and my cousin was like, you know, some trash bags, get your stuff. And I threw those trash bags into the trunk of my 2000 Mercury Cougar. And I was homeless at my 17 or 18. Luckily, my aunt had been saving the money that she got from the state to take care of me for custodial care. And she gave that to the school counselor, Ms. Hott, and she ended up getting me a room in a boarding house.

So my senior year, like I lived a boarding house for a couple months. and then the community outreach has an apartment that they typically say for adults, like you could stay there a month, you pay 30% your income. But they knew my situation. They said, Reed, you can stay here as long as you go to school and you graduate. And I did. So I had my own apartment on Main Street, downtown St. Mary's as a senior. And, you know, I ended up missing like 45 days of school so much that it was funny.

Our truancy officer at the high school was also the homeless liaison. So like the same woman who would help me buy my Reebok, Kool-Aid shoes and make sure I a tennis racket and take me to Dollar General to get my hygiene supplies. She was a truancy officer, but she was also the academic team and the science bowl advisor. So I would go in at 7 in the morning and we would have science bowl practice. Our academic team practice, she would take us to competitions, but she's also like, you know, read why haven't she been coming to school, right? Like her, let's go get you some hygiene stuff. So it was really full circle of relationship with her. After I've come home from prison,

she's a big advocate for the Boys and Girls Club, which ended up getting invited to serve on their board and volunteer with them. So she's been really ecstatic about my success. Shout out, Ms. Vinder, like, love you to death. Yeah, so I remember I sat down in front of the magistrate, 45 days truant, and he's like, well, why are you missing school? And I'm thinking, like, I'm doing the best I can. Like, I'm working at Domino's and, you know, I'm doing tennis and, you know,

I'm fucking depressed. So he said, I'll tell you what, you know, what's your plans after you graduate? I said, I want to go to college. I want to go to West Virginia Wesley. And he said, well, that's where my son went. He said, you don't miss another day. You graduate and you go on Wesleyan and white this way. And I didn't miss another day and ended up going to Wesleyan.

Dropped out just a couple months into college because mentally it just wasn't there. And it would be maybe just a year later I would end up having my first psychotic episode, my first manic break. I ended up homeless. Dad always calls it like Zulu out on the street. And maybe we can get into that here in a bit. But I guess we'll pause right there. a lot of information. You have any questions about that piece? Well, you know, it's interesting that you were forced to grow up so fast. And also, most kids wouldn't have been able to tell their counselor

or anyone or teacher that they were having a problem at home and that was affecting them. Like, you were able to do. Well, I appreciate that because I still feel a lot of guilt and shame about doing that. And like, I'm on a podcast right now, like, talking about it. So I know that my dad feels a lot of pain about it too. He's not proud about his decisions. that led us there. And I don't hold that against them. You know, we have a decent relationship now and I'm happy for that. But yeah, I mean, it did take strength, courage, self-awareness. And, you know, I was rewarded with an opportunity because of that and because I continued to make poor choices, right? My life got harder. Do you think no matter who you lived with it, it would have had the same

outcome? Because it sounds like both parents were a little bit unstable in their own ways. Oh, you mean between mom and dad? It would have ended up worse with mom for sure. I mean, Jack, my brother, he caught a felony at 17. He had a quarter pound of weed in the trunk. Like, I think the reason I started smoking weed was because my brother was selling it. Like, I just walked across the hallway. It was like, I want to try something. I was like, all right.

So, boom, there we are. So definitely not being issues, you know, could get belligerent and stuff. Were you guys close? Me and my brother? As close as he'd let me be. I'm the baby, so I was always the annoying younger brother. But, no, I tell you, I was just telling my mentor this the other night. there was an irreplaceable loyalty that I had with him that I miss.

He would have killed anybody, would have fought anybody who would have done anything for me, even if he always wasn't trying to hang out and kick it because I'm the younger brother. So yeah, yeah, we were fairly close, 16 months apart. So you go to Wesleyan. What are you majoring in at that point? I'm so glad you asked that biology. And I was in my 101 class, probably 100 kids, and they asked, who here is here for pre-med?

like everybody raised their hand. They were like, who's here for professional sciences? And it was just me. I wanted to go to grad school to become a PhD in molecular and cellular biology so I could study aging and longevity. Because, you know, I was always reading Scientific American and Discover Magazine. I would go to the library. It was right down the alley from the trailer me and dad lived in.

And I remember you got the ping pong table out there. So there was this game called King Pingpong, and you just flick the mouse back and forth. So either I was playing this ping pong game on the computer on MySpace naturally or I was looking up Scientific American and Discover Magazine trying to learn about that stuff. So I wanted to be a bio major. I was on the tennis team and, you know, practice with them for a couple months.

But yeah, there's this creeping feeling came over with me of like, man, I'm an outsider here, I'm isolated, I don't have any family, I don't have the support I need. Like, nobody even cares that I'm here. Why am I here? And I call my best friend Valley, who is also overdosed and passed away. Sad as shit.

What a wonderful kid. we lost so many kids in high school. Dahlia was in his early 20s when he died. I remember Brian Bailey too. I'm so curious who's going to end up watching this that remembers Brian Bailey. I remember snorting piles of Percocet fives when I was 16 in the basement

watching the Mountaineers game. But most people, you know, remember him as like the baseball star, the football star, the standout just, you know, charisma and smile he had. And the reason I'm here in, the reason I'm going down to Florida to talk to Matt Cox on his podcast is because people need to know

what it's like behind closed doors and what we're really doing and what we're really going through because even though you see that smile like think of robin williams it doesn't mean that we're okay so you asked the question like would it have been better which way i went like yeah i made the better decision i tried to make the better decision going to my aunts tried to make the better decision mind you i didn't tell you this part but like after i graduated from that apartment my mind was so literal when they said that i could stay there until i graduated so like the next day i came home and I just slid the key under the door and locked it behind me because I was like done there and I was homeless and I try walking to camp horseshoe which is like three hours away and I made it

maybe like you know 20 miles I remember walking out route 50 from Ellenborough and these big dark clouds start rolling in and like just massive rain starts coming down and I'm in like my converse and skinny jeans with my green bandana rolled around my head and I walk through that storm for hours and hours and hours until it's dark until it's like dark morning time and I try and sleep on the side of the road and the trucks are coming. I can't sleep. So boom, there's this mobile home lot and I'm like, I wonder if they're unlocked than it was. So I had climbed in this mobile home and I'm wrapping up with the flag that was in the corner and then boom, I wake up and I'm trucking down the road and I'm like, man, I'm hungry and my knee hurts. So I end up making it to this really small town called West Union.

And there's a library there I finally limped into and the woman, you know, she gave me a passcode and stuff. there and I text my ex, high school sweetheart, and I said, could you please call Camp Horseshoe and like let them know I need help? And I just remember waking up, I was on the front steps of the library and then like boom, there's David King. He was the director of Camp Horseshoe, the Youth Leadership Association, who's now basically my dad, my mentor. And he's like, you hungry? You want to go get something to eat? So he took me to get something to eat. And I ended up going to Camp Horseshoe working there for the summer. But something still wasn't. right in me. Like, you know, Camp Horseshoe was super transformative as I was a teenager. It gave me

a glimpse of like what was possible. Kids seeing me for who I was, not my past. But when I would go home, I remember the first time I came home from Camp Horses who I went to Domino's, which is where I worked at the time. I went home and dad wasn't there to like share the excitement. So then I went to Domino's because I wanted to share my excitement with them, but then I kind of forgot like what the culture is there. I just got high instead with one of my coworkers and all that excitement went away until months later I'd go back to a different youth program and I get excited again. So yeah, here I was with the opportunity to work there, contribute, be a part of the solution.

And I still felt like, you know, I don't know. I don't know what I felt, man. I felt like that wasn't me, that I wasn't good enough or my background didn't equip me to be there or I would prefer to be out there smoking and drink. I don't know what it was, man. It's taken me a long time to finally come into you never wanted that life. You can have the life that you choose. You know, you just have to work for it. And prison gave me that. I used to think I didn't need a VPN. I mean, who would hack me, right? Then one day I was sitting in an airport lounge, logged into free Wi-Fi and bam, my email got compromised. That's when I got NordVPN and I haven't looked back since. Now whether I'm watching sports from a blocked region, booking flights at a discount or just browsing safely at a coffee shop. NordVPN keeps me covered. The best part, no lag, no buffering, just smooth, fast, and secure internet across all my devices.

If you're online without NordVPN, you're rolling the dice. So I take the risk. So if you're online, which you obviously are, you need NordVPN to get the best discount off your NordVPN plan. Go to NordVPN.com slash Ian Bick, where you'll get four. extra months free on a two-year plan, and don't worry, there's no risk with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. The link is in the podcast episode description. Now let's get back into today's episode. Do you ever have anger towards your parents? Because, you know, like I listen to all these stories

and, you know, 95% of the time they were just born into the lifestyle. Like, they were born into that. You don't have control over who your parents are going to be. And if it's a unstable upbringing, you know, you're not in control of that. Does that build up anger for you as you get older and you kind of realize that and you look at how people might have grown up normally or whatever it is? That was better than your situation? Yeah, so it did. It did create anger and resentment for me.

And I placed a lot of blame on myself and had a lot of shame. I used to ask myself, what is it that's wrong with me where my parents don't love me? What have I done to make them treat me this way? why don't I have it the same way that other people do? I'm so fortunate that when I was in high school, I jumped in front of a truck and attempt to kill myself because through that I found a therapist, Cindy Enman, who's helped change my life and shaped my thinking.

So at 17 or 18, I was given the gift of recognizing and releasing that resentment and anger. Because she said, read, your parents loved you. They loved you the best they could in their addiction. They're sick. so it has nothing to do with you or what you've done wrong it's not about you deserving the circumstance of that type of treatment it's about their

own sickness and them doing the best they can and I thought about that my brother he harbored resentment towards our parents till the day he died I know that and I saw how that like kept them in the grasp of addiction I didn't want to have a reason to always get high my reason was always like oh my life shit I'm going to go get highs is an excuse so I was like wait a second mom does love me like she sat down on the edge of the bed and did my spelling words with me right she encouraged me she made sure i got tested to be make sure i was gifted and then dad does love me you know he jokes around with me and he buys me yugio cards a polkimo cards from the gas station he does love me those times when he doesn't you know that's because he was sick with the same addiction that i've leaned into

so i can separate that so i was angry i was resentful now i embrace it because because of that i've found myself into a platform i found myself with the awareness and the awareness and the knowledge that if we can address these adverse experiences in children, if we can design our communities and economy intentionally so people have opportunities so that each child has a loving, caring, supportive adult to support them, then we can fix this. We can prevent this. You know, it's not necessarily about the prison system not working. It's about our world not working. And guess what? We've done the best we can to get here. When we look at the symptoms, we have to treat those. So you talk about the 95% who have dealt with similar things. You know, how can we use people

you know, that are working to try and fix this, make a difference. And I really do think, like, reimagining how we support families, reimagining what a family is, and making sure that we reach those kids who are out there struggling right now. So what happens when you drop out of college, walk us through that time period? Yeah, yeah, back to Valley. Gosh, we diverged there, didn't we? Man, that's so sad. Valley, he came and picked me up in Yoshi.

That's what he named his Toyota Camry, who used to cruising that thing so much. He came and picked me up. And I probably cruised once for a couple weeks with him. I don't even know where I stayed during that time. But eventually I realized I needed a stable place to stay and to do something. So I called David King, who ended up becoming my mentor. And I told him the situation.

And he said, you can come stay with me. But he asked me, he said, what are you going to do? I said, give me a couple weeks and I figured out. So I start Googling, like, jobs. And living in Parkersburg and St. Mary's, we live right along the Ohio River, which is like the second biggest river in the country. And there's always barges going up and down it. I always thought it would be cool to work on a barge.

So I was either going to work on the railroad or the river. And he said there's a decan training school like an hour down the road. So I ended up getting enrolled in this deckhand training school. Go down there. Boom, I'm working on the river. 20 days on, 10 days off. Next thing you know, I'm partying it up on my 10 days off. I'm at the locker room, like the dingiest bar in the middle of Ohio Valley,

like the most turned up. And this girl, you know, ends up taking me back to her place. And we wake up the next day. And she's like, don't go. And I'm like, all right. And then boom, there goes that job on the river. I've got no sustainable income, no house, nothing. I'm 19.

Like, what are we going to do? And she ends up getting rated while I'm there. The SWAT team shows up because her brother was on probation. He had that address listed. So next thing you know, like they come up looking for him and then they come back because we've been smoking weed in there. So that was trippy. Luckily, I didn't get in trouble.

But it wasn't long after that, man. It's, you know, as I'm writing my book and thinking about the different different stories out of my life that I want to tell. When I look at that 19 to 22 period of time, chronologically, it's still blurry because it was about 19 when I was diagnosed with my mental illness. All right, it's coming back to me. So I ended up staying above a barbershop in Williamstown, West Virginia, across Marietta, which is where the locker room was with my homie Alex Dunn,

who is now in Mount Olive prison in West Virginia. he killed a guy, shot him with the 22, you know, strung out on meth. I was living with Alex, and we were partying at the locker room all the time. And my old middle school sweetheart from North Carolina, she was turning maybe 21 or something, turning something down in North Carolina. And she was having the Red Bull Red Wings girls there at her party. I'm like, oh, this is so lit like, y'all, we got to go. So we scrounge up enough money to get a rental car.

And boom, there's four or five of us deep in this rental car driving down in North Carolina. we're so torn up that we missed the exit for the beach. And we end up in South Carolina. We had lost the last $50 in a coin machine. And we had AAA come and get us enough gas to make it to her house the next day after the party was over. In Miami, he had to be back for court. And he was like, yo, I got to go. And I'm like, we just got here.

I haven't seen her in 10 years. I'm like, you know what? You guys go. I'll be okay. So now I'm in, and her name is Jesse Council. So I'm in her suite with like three other girls that go to UNC Wilmington. They're like, what the fuck is this guy doing here? And like I'm developing this mania as this is going on.

What the fuck is this guy doing here? She's like, yes, my friend from middle school, what am I supposed to do? He's just here. He's homeless. So after a few days, we got a hold of another friend of mine, Jenny Jones. She was up at UNC Chapel Hill. And Jesse drives me from Wilmington up to Chapel Hill and drops me off. And now I'm at Jenny's dorm at UNC Chapel Hill at like 19 homeless in Raleigh.

And I remember I met this dude. Gosh, this is so good. His name was Michael Trues and he was selling CDs on campus. And for some reason in my mania, I thought it was the world's best rapper. I don't know if this happens a lot to people who develop psychosis, but it did for me. So I'm like, oh, what are you doing? He's like selling these CDs. I'm like, let's hear it.

I'm like, oh, this is dope. I can help you sell these CDs. And I'm a rapper. So boom, I'm helping him sell these CDs. I'm a rapper. He ends up taking me back to the studio. I meet the whole roster of rappers, new future records. cash fortune,

Kilo G, Flash. I meet all these guys in Raleigh. Like, I'm some 19 year old from West Virginia, just dropped out of college, quit the river, missed the exit for the Red Bull Party, and now I'm at UNC Chapel Hill,

like trying to make my rap career. Gosh, this is good. And I remember we were going around Shaw University singing their song, you know. Gosh. So I spent several weeks in Raleigh. I don't know how long it was. Homeless.

I remember I ended up without shoes I got this sweet tattoo that says 304 head bustin number one and upside down it says ho oh or hope oh 304 reads ho upside down so actually let me tell you this story how I got this tattoo so I stand outside the convenience store with no shoes on and this real sweet girl she was like you ain't got no shoes I said no she said hang on

so she brings me these DC like vans I'm standing out there in front of the convenience store and this dude baldhead comes up and we're talking he's like you all like them sneakers I'm like what's up and you want to buy him he's like all right

so I trade him like maybe like 20 bucks and his Nike slides for these DCs so like this is a big come up for me and ends up we go back to dude's place to smoke some weed and I walk in

there are cornhole boards in the living room and there's a tattoo gun with like aluminum foil foot pedal there stripper pole in the bedroom and we start partying. I'm like, yo, like, you, have you ever given a tattoo before? He said, no. I'm like, will you? He's like, I guess. You just got to draw what you want. So I tried drawing this infinity symbol and I couldn't do it. So I was like, fuck it, man, just like, give me the 304. And he puts the 304 there. And I'm like, that looks like, shit. Put it in parentheses. Okay. I was like, I feel like we need something underneath of it. And he just looks at me and dude's covered in tattoos. You can tell he's been

the prison. He's like, you look like a head busted of me. I'm like, all right. run it. And I'm like, what is that? He's like, oh, it's a prison gang. I'm like, but I'm not in the gang. He's like, I don't care. I'm like, me neither. So boom, now I'm an official headbusser. And you can see it here. I was like, well, it looks uneven. We need to put something else. Why don't you make an exclamation mark? So he makes the exclamation mark. I'm like, why don't you put the star down there underneath of it? I'm like, gosh, that looks like shit, too. Just turn it into a number one. And then I was in the car with my mentor like months later after I made it back to West Virginia and like hold need those shit handle. And that's when I said, grandpa, I said,

My wrist says, oh, my God. Yeah, so I remember I was at some gambling joint in Raleigh. While I was homeless there. And I realized, like, life is hard, homeless, and I didn't want to do that anymore. So I reached out to my friend Rory Beck in West Virginia. Yeah, fellow theater student. He got me involved in tennis back in high school. He's like, oh, how's it going?

I was like, oh, you know, just homeless here in Raleigh. He's like, what do you mean? I'm like, oh, yeah, just been down here for a few weeks. Like, you know, selling CDs, singing on campus, you know, meeting cool people. people. Getting tattoos. Getting fucking sweet tattoos. And he's like, are you okay?

And I'm like, yeah, it's homeless. And the next thing you know, like an hour later he comes like, he's like, here's your bus ticket number. Sorry, I can't do more. I'm like, oh. So I have some dude on the streets take me, you know, where the bus station is and I'm on a greyhound back to West Virginia. And I was still homeless.

So I end up staying at the Clarksburg mission and the Parkersburg mission. I remember I was homeless in St. Mary's staying up all night, like delusional, thinking I'm Jesus Christ, seeing things that aren't there, talking nonstop. I'm on the phone with like AT&T trying to negotiate their arbitration clauses. It was very bizarre. The stuff I was doing. I walked up to the police station one night and I had my Bible box because everything was religious. I thought I was going to find Zion. And I knocked on the door and I was like, do you believe in God? He just looked at me so funny. He's like, come back later. Come back in an hour. So I came back in an hour. So I came back in an hour. So I came back in an hour. and there was like four cops there. And they set me down and I'm taking my cell phone apart, pulling the SIM card out of it, like unfolded my bandana, showing them Bible verses. And eventually,

Officer Rhodes, Jeremy Rhodes, and I just talked to him the other day. Wonderful human being. He gives me a ride from St. Mary's down to Parkersburg to Westbrook Health Services. And they did an intake and they ended up committing me.

But before we even got in the car, before even went to Parkersburg, he took me to subway. he saw me smash like this big old footlong. I just thought it was super kind to him to be the police, but also to feed me while I was in that state. So he really took after me. So now I'm sitting across from an attorney and somebody at Westbrook,

and I don't know who these people are, and I'm telling them about how, like, you can actually levitate and all of these things. And I was arguing with him about how I'm not a danger to myself and others. So boom, I get committed. Take me down to the hospital. I remember, and I'm just chatting it up with all the nurses having a great time. And boom, they take me up the elevator.

They had me changing to some clothes. I'm like, no problem. Then we go through the door and then the door locks behind me and I'm like, what's up with the door?

Why is it locked like that? They're like, well, you're on this floor until you're allowed to leave. What do you mean? Like, yeah, you've been committed by the state. What does that mean?

Well, you have to be here for at least 14 days and you have to be compliant with your medication. So I'm like spazzing out, but, you know, do a little 14 day stint in the hospital and boom, I'm like,

I'm like, Clin a pin. and lithium and who knows how many different medications and xyprexa and dude i got stretch marks on my arms and my belly still from where i got so fat from all the psych meds they put me on but i was stable how old were you at that time when you got committed 19 19 this is all happening when i was 19 yolo this is all right after leaving college right after leaving college yeah when your parents weren't in touch with you at all when you got committed and your brother neither no him and mom were in north Carolina and dad.

At the time I was angry because I tried reaching him when I was at the mission, but I was probably so far gone that he just had no clue about how to help me. Because mental illness to a lot of people appears as like bad behavior. And it is. Those are the symptoms. But a lot of people can't grasp it like, oh, you know, that person does kind of need help. And, you know, the system we have to sedate people and stabilize them, you know, it's helpful in some ways, but not in others.

The fact I still have to take a move stabilize. or every day, like not ideal, but at least I don't think I'm Jesus Christ, and I'm, you know, not with no shoes in Raleigh pursuing my rap career, although I do occasionally, you know, spit a few pounds. Ready or not, summer is coming, and Wayfair's Memorial Day clearance is on now. Right now through May 25th, get up to 70% off everything home at Wayfair. Plus score amazing doorbuster deals all sale long and surprise flash deals on Memorial Day. We're talking thousands of products at every style and budget.

Now is the time to save big on must-habs for your passion. backyard and beyond. These savings won't last. So don't wait. Shot Wayfair's Memorial Day clearance now through May 25th. Wayfair, every style, every home. Comes or something. Bring you back to your route. That's right, man. I got to stay grounded. So you get out after 14 days. What happened the next? Where do you go? I'm pretty sure that I went back to David's. That's my mentor. You know, he's been my guardian angel along this whole journey. He was the director of the Youth Leadership Association for 40 years. very conservative comes from a hardworking background very well connected professionally and politically so a really good example to follow that i didn't have and he said i could come back and i remember i was

just telling him the other day like he helped create a little binder of like my personal documents to try and keep me organized and he wrote a letter at the beginning of him and he said it was kind of like what he offered in friendship and relationship and what you know the boundary was in terms of i can't be there smoking, drinking, but he can help open doors for me to walk through and he's willing to be some semblance of family to as much as I want. And I was like, well, that's really clear and kind. That's cool. I want a family. So boom, I'm basically adopted by David, but I'm also, and one of the conditions was I do what the doctors say, which is fairly good advice for a support person who doesn't understand mental illness. So that means taking like all of these medications that eventually I ended up

not needing. And I'm fat and I can't work. And I'm sleeping like 16 hours. today and I'm miserable. And I get a call from my stepdad, Rick, and he's like, read your mom broke her neck. And so what do you mean? Like, she alive? He said, yeah, she's in the hospital paralyzed. That's not very good. He said, I need you to come down here and help take care of her.

And mind you, I couldn't hardly take care of myself. And he was frantic. And I said, but I don't have a job. I'm on disability. like my therapist had talked me into being a disability, you know, because my mental illness and ended up getting it. So I thought about it and I talked to my mentor

and he said, you know, you only have one mom. I said, that's true. So I went to North Carolina and I'm, you know, staying in the hospital with her. She's paralyzed with the neck brace on in the bed. This is terrifying. So, you know, sleep next to her. And what was crazy is that he would bring her coat

while she was in the hospital bed. and then she asked me like hey reedy help me get a bump of this like what do you mean help you get a bump of this you're paralyzed in the bed no so that my sister would come and they'd be in the bathroom extra 15 minutes she'd be in there putting dope up her nose but what do you do do you leave no you stay there and you help your mom so i stayed you know it's a couple weeks we spent at the hospital and she slowly started to get some mobility back and then rickie got us a house Um, whoops, probably shouldn't name drop, no.

It's all right. It got us a house in a small town in North Carolina. And when she came home from the hospital, I stayed there with her. And I remember, like, you know, helping her get the whole house set up and decorated. Nothing being right. Nothing being good enough. Tilt the picture, read, it's crooked. And then helping her with her makeup, you know, gosh, I'll get her makeup bag out.

And I would help her with the stuff she couldn't get, but she wanted me to let her get the things that she could. And she progressed over time. And there was a Christmas season. We always listened to Aaron Neville's Christmas. So we were jamming out the Christmas music. And she was able to start walking it at a point. And she got a lot of her mobility back. But she was always, you know, limp in.

And she didn't get full use of her hands back. But like she was prescribed 60 time release OxyContin. First it was 20s. Then it went up to 30s. Then went up to 40s. But she also got like 120 roxy10s, the little teeny ones. and we used to just pound those out on the counter. We would just crush up all these roxies and snort them all day long.

And now I have an opiate addiction. And I'm pushing her in the wheelchair up to the stopping shop so we could get wild Irish rows in 40s and cigarettes. And then I push her down in the river, all torn up when we sit there. It might sound crazy to some people. Like those were good times. Being there with her, like that was our relationship. She'd be in her room just laying there all day.

resting watching me TV and I'd be out there you know playing NBA live or something on the PlayStation the fact that we drank and used drugs together that was just our life it was about six or eight months I spent down there doing that and when she got back to like as much health as she was going to get it was clear that we weren't getting along very well and I remember spazzing out one day and like punching the door or something because she was just so difficult to get along with and I knew that it was time for me to go call my dad in West Virginia hey I want to come home okay you know get the cabin ready stepdad was about to take me to the airport and we get a call for my dad and i remember rick got off the phone he's like well weedy i don't know what to tell you

always call me reedy weedy he said your dad said you can't come i said why not he said you know i guess his wife doesn't want you there i'm like all right he said but he's going to come up with something for you so maybe a month later it ends up okay there is a cabin you can stay and it's just not the one that I own. It's the one that's next to it that I don't own, but I look after it. And there's also not water and there's no phone, anything. There's just like the lights on. So I go back to West Virginia. I'm staying out the hauler, man. And it's like 50, it's like 45 minutes from town. Out Sugar Valley in Pleasance County in friendly West Virginia. I always called it like the happiest place in the world. And it was, it was beautiful out there. But you couldn't walk to a grocery store. I remember.

I would bathe in the creek and wash my hair in the creek, and I had a bucket that I would take down to the creek, and I would carry water back so I could flush the toilet. And I was out there probably for a couple months and hanging out with, I always refer to folks out to holler, holler-crawlers, especially when I got into my meth addiction and sell meth. But just mountain folk and riding dirt bikes and stuff, and then playing beer palm but with moonshine,

because that's the thing, and then project out puking all over things. place. So yeah, man, it wasn't long. But so when I came back from North Carolina, though, and I think when I went to North Carolina, I stopped taking my medication. So we go from like stabilized in the hospital to I'm going to snort a bunch of perks with my mom and drink all the time to now I'm living in a cabin with like no amenities drinking moonshine. And you can imagine it wasn't long before I was manic again. And I end up homeless in Parkersburg, staying at the mission, wandering around, follow my rap career again.

with other homeless people and geeked out with my magic cards and one night I walk up to J.R.'s donut castle. It was like three in the morning. They're open 24-7 and I was talking to the guy that worked there and I was like, hey man, these stools are dirty. I bet you if you had some brillo pads I could, you know, shine them up for you. He's like, no. He said, but you want to take this trash out? I'll give you donuts. What's the trash out? me a donut. And I just remember, like, I really knew at that moment that I needed help. And I picked up the pay phone and I called 911 and I'm like, psych risk, red alert. Boom, they ship an ambulance out. They're like, what's going on? I'm like, I'm Zulued out, man. Like, I need some help. So I'm in the

back of the ambulance. I got my magic cards. I'm showing the dudes the meaning, the deep spiritual meaning of all these magic cards. Who knows what I'm talking about? And then next thing you know, I'm at Camden Clark again. Committed. And for some reason I felt like I could get in there voluntarily to where they wouldn't keep me for 14 days. I was wrong. So when I found out that I couldn't leave, I spazzed out. And I'm like slap my arm saying I need two milligrams of Atavans stat. So they strapped me to the table and gave me what I asked for. And then they shipped me out to another hospital, Fairmont, which is like a facility of Sharps, which is like our state mental institution. And I spent the rest of my commitment like 11 or so days there getting stabilized. on medication again. And I actually got baptized for the first time. I mean, before that, I thought it was Jesus Christ

and I had this spiritual awakening. But the Gideans, you know, they were in there and they baptized me. So that was kind of a cool moment. When I came back from being hospitalized, the second time, I went back to David's place and it was the same situation. Like, you've got to go to the doctor.

You got to go to therapy. You have to take the medicine. Can't drink, can't do drugs, can't smoke. So what the result was is I would eat, hot pockets and soft pretzels and little Debbie cakes and watch Supernatural for 14 hours and sleep the other 10 or 12 or 14. So it was like 260 pounds just a mammoth and I couldn't talk. You were 260?

260. Twice in my life. Wow. Swollen. How are she away now? Like 200, two of five maybe. I can't believe you were 260. Yeah.

And I actually got up to 240, 250 when I was in prison when I went to jail from eating honeybuns and sleeping all day. Yeah. So I spent probably a year at David's, my grandpa, my mentors, not doing anything on disability, couldn't work, couldn't talk, fat. And I got a call for my best friend from high school, my old doubles partner from tennis, Randy. And he was in Nashville and he's like, what are you doing? I said absolutely nothing. I can't do anything. Fat, lazy, can't work mentally ill. And he said, why don't you come visit Nashville? I'm like, I don't know, it sounds kind of like a guy. good idea. And he said, matter of fact, you can just come stay. I said, well, let me start with a visit. So I go down and visit. Now I'm not a David's anymore. We can drink. So boom,

we're drinking rum and stuff. And I feel a little bit more social. This is cool. We're playing Call of Duty at the apartment. All right, let's go. I thought you said you didn't play Call of Debt. Yeah, not anymore. I'm 32 now. I asked you at the lobby. You did. You made it sound like you never played your life. Yeah, I played before I went to prison. I had an N-64 and a Super Nintendo and the Nintendo all the game stuff when I came home from prison but I sold it all. So you guys were playing Call of Duty. Playing Call of Doodoo.

Sorry, I had to chime in on that one. I was like, this motherfucker lied to me. Kind of. Yeah, so we were playing Cod. It was cool. I was like, this is way better than sitting in my room by myself, withering away or swelling up,

however you look at it. So I ended up moving to Nashville. And Randy was of the mindset that didn't really believe in mental illness. but he definitely believed that I could work, even if I was. So I ended up getting my first job in a couple years. At Little Caesars, I walked up at the hill in Antioch, Tennessee, Nashville. And I showed up every day and spent my paychecks on liquor.

And I was consistent. And they promoted me to assistant manager. And I was in the liquor store so much that the dude eventually was like, you want a job? I'm thinking, well, all I do is work and drink anyways. so I could work more and drink as much as more and have more money. Yeah. I got two jobs right next to each other.

I'd get done at Little Caesars going to the liquor store. And now I had a tab at the liquor store. And now I'm doing cocaine in the bathroom at the liquor store and Adderall. And I remember I found my plug, my cocaine plug in Nashville. He was a customer at Little Caesar. Like he came in and he was jeweled up with the fitted on. I already knew what it was. I was like, where's a white girl at?

He's like, I got you. It was the first time in my life that I heard somebody say bet. and it was via text message. This was 2015. I was like, all right, I'm ready whenever you are. And the dude was like, bet. And I'm like, what are we playing poker? What does he mean, bet?

And finally, he would just be like, okay, and I understood. So it's so funny, like, coming home from prison more recently, and everybody's adopted it. Yeah, Nashville, it's probably there for over a year and a half. So I developed that cocaine addiction. Mind you, I left out this minor detail that I think super relevant. When I was at the house with mom after she broke her neck, and like we were sorting roxies and doing oxies and drinking. On my 21st birthday, I stepped out, it came over,

and I know that had given her some dope because they went in the room or whatever. And I said, Mom, I want to try that. I asked her on my 24. I was like, I want to try that. So she gave me the bag with the straw on it. She says, here. So I put my nose in the, it was like half a gram. I did it all.

I didn't know how to do that. next thing you know I'm on the couch and that's the first day I started using cocaine and then you can imagine after that I was always like mom can I get another bump and she wouldn't really give me a ton but there was some intermittent use so when I got to Nashville and I had a job and I had money and I had access I'm like I can do coke all the time so I was doing coke you know as much as I could afford working at a little Caesars and the liquor store and also drinking and taking the lawyer who worked there part-time his Adderall and he didn't want him it was sweet I realized that wasn't what I wanted long-term So I wanted to go back to school. Like it was in my heart, I still wanted to be a scientist. I thought, so what if I go back to West Virginia and finance going to school, maybe get a labor job, save up some money and go back to college? So boom, I come back to West Virginia. Dad had a little airstream type camper that he bought for just a couple hundred bucks

and he put it in his front yard at the cabin. And I'm living in a camper. I give me a labor job. Things are going pretty good. I mean, I'm still drinking and like snorting my prescription. description clonopin but that's relatively good and i remember at the gas station the go martin st mary's and there's this girl who you know i thought was kind of cute and she was real charismatic and i asked her what she was doing for new year she said nothing what are you doing tonight i said oh

why don't you come out to the camper so she came out to the camper and you know talking about drug use and stuff and next thing you know she said whether you ever tried meth and i stood up and boat up. I said, no, I never would because my brother strung out on that now. She knew that we had talked about me liking to put drugs up my nose. She said, well, I said, you're not going to smoke that shit here. She said, well, you can snort it too. I said, you can snort math?

Because I would never inject anything or smoke a hard drug. But I can't get cocaine because we're in West Virginia and that good cocaine doesn't really exist there. My experience. So I was like, well, what's it like? Now I'm curious. She's like, oh, you know, it's like a speed type buzz.

You know, if that calms you out typically, then this might calm me down too and put it up my nose and down the rabbit hole we go. And it did have that type of effect on me, like whether it's like Vivance or Had or all. Like it did kind of calm me down and bring me peace. I like that. So it became my drug of choice at 24. I was working that labor job and the intention was to save up money to go back to college. But I ended up so strung out that even though I got accepted and. to WVU Tech orientation the first day.

Like my best friend's parents were going to be there in that town to like welcome me to the city, make it a good experience. And I was too strung out to even go. So eventually, man, in my experience with meth, like there's plenty of people that do meth and are functioning. There are plenty of people who do meth and, you know, work and stuff that you can't tell. You couldn't tell for the first six months or eight months for me. But eventually, I just didn't want to work anymore.

I would just rather be high on meth than go work. that's part of meth addiction in my experience. So eventually I quit the job, and now, like, I have limited to no income. So my few buddies that do meth, now I've got to go find a place to get meth, and now I'm, you know, selling them a couple bags just so I can afford to have mine and the gas to get there.

And eventually I meet my ex, and she worked at a gas station across the river, Newport, Ohio, which is where I would end up getting raided and taken to jail and prison. And she had recently lost her husband in a timbering accident. And it was serendipitous because my homie, Troy, who like me, him and Valley were all best friends. He had a thing for my brother's funeral when Zach overdosed sitting underneath the cash register. And then Trish, my ex, she saw it.

And the poem in it she said stood out to her because she had just lost her husband Scott. And this girl actually, she was prescribed subutex, which, you know, It's like Suboxone, but without the naloxone in it. And, you know, folks especially like to use heroin. This is a great substitute. It gets you just as high, if not more high. And you can take the pill and cook it with water and then inject it, which come to find out, that's what she did. But I would take those pills and I would sell them to my dad because he was an opiate addict from, you know, once having a neck and back surgery and then getting prescribed them and then not being able to get off of them.

So I would sell him her subutex to help her out because her husband's dead. and they lived in a camper, so she couldn't take care of this camper. And some people who were regular customers at the store helped her get into an apartment. But she couldn't afford the bills with that apartment, not working 30 hours a week at a gas station. So, hey, can you help me sell these pills to get the water on and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, yeah, for sure. So I'm helping her get rid of her subutags. And next thing you know, we're at her apartment.

And naturally, like, I had never really had in a relationship into adulthood because I was 260 pounds and couldn't talk. and you know i'd lost some weight from the meth and i had a vehicle and you know we end up sleeping together and i remember like bumping into something on her arm and i asked her what it was she says oh it's just a bug bite but really what it was is it was a hardened vein because shooting subutects will harden your veins so she'd been shooting drugs for a long time and i didn't know it maybe this was inappropriate to share but it's something that like really to me was prominent

in all of that she didn't have any teeth and I didn't know that that she was wearing dentures at the whole time we, you know, I knew her at the gas station was selling her stuff for before I slept with her like I didn't know that she had dentures I didn't know that she was a sub-buttax addict

former heroin addict I didn't know any of this and then boom you're invested in this relationship where you don't even really have a place to stay you're a meth addict you just want to get high and be free here's a person who's struggling too you both like to get high like why don't you just move in and try to help her and pay her bills and do this thing call it love so we did and man i tell you when you go from buying like a gram of meth to trying to find a half ounce or an ounce of meth it's a different demographic of people when i was 23 i didn't know people who did meth for i came back to West Virginia, I had no clue, wouldn't want to know. But now I'm out here network and trying to figure out who's got it, how do I get it, who's got the best deal, who's got the plug, like working my way through this progression. And I finally find like a good deal on it, a sustainable price for the right amount to where I can sell it to my friends

and make a profit. But what I didn't realize is that I didn't have enough friends to support the type of money I needed to make to pay the bill. So now I have to find more people that already do meth. So now I'm getting integrated into culture in Wood County, Pleasance County, Washington County, and, you know, Appalachian, West Virginia, and Ohio of people that do meth. And man, there's people who've done meth since there in middle school. You wouldn't believe the amount of people who were on it. I had no clue. But, like, I feel like I wasn't born to be a meth dealer. Like, I was an honest meth deal. Like, I would walk in. They'd be like, are you the police? I'm like, I look like it, don't I?

You do look like a cop. I would have pegged you. I was like I'm a military guy. The way you carry yourself, clean cut, you know, you dress, definitely military. Yeah, and you're not the only one. And you also wore your ID around land. You literally just came out of prisoners of it. With the boots on and everything.

That's funny. Yeah, my plug actually, she made me smoke crack for the first time before she would sell me a bag. Because she thought I was the police for real. And I was like, I don't know how to smoke crack. Crack, nor do I want to. I said I'd never smoke hard drugs. Well, so she's over there lighten this crack stem for me. And yeah, that was enough verification for her. I felt pretty violated, but whatever, you do what you got to do? How much did you pick up that first time? Just a half ounce. And what does that translate to dollar? Yeah, it's $1,400. Okay. And how much did you pay for it? I was paying $400, which you go to prison and you learn. I was getting taxed. You were getting taxed on? Yeah, yeah, you can get, yeah. You get ounces for $300. the guys that I was in prison with three, four hundred.

So why don't these addicts just buy it in bulk? Like I don't get it. Why are they buying retail? So I think the more strung out you are, the harder it can be to collect money. So if you are composed enough to collect other people's money, then you just go and get the bag and then you win. But not everybody looks at that way. Some people just want enough to get high for the day.

Yeah, it's a good question. That markup's pretty crazy. Yeah, to me it was easy. All I had to do was sell four grams after I had bought it and I'd made my money back. So now I have a thousand dollars worth of dope that I can either do or sell. So like every trip I'm making, you know, several hundred dollars and I have plenty of drugs to do, which is cool. So I'm making a trip, you know, a couple times a week probably. And I'm also like running the haulers delivering between, you know, three different areas, you know, St. Mary's, Newport, Marietta, Parkersburg, and the rural areas plus having people.

people come to me and the people who don't want to, and sometimes people don't want to mess with like the bigger amounts. They just want enough to get high. So they're willing to pay that premium. And the reason I mentioned like the demographic and the culture that I had to get integrated to and I had to find and network people who did meth, that's what led me to get arrested. If I just was doing some meth and kept working and stuff, I wouldn't have got arrested. But at the time I decided, okay, I want to sell a half ounce at a time, pay me and my ex's bills so we can get high. To do that, now I'm dealing with 10, 20 people that I ordinarily wouldn't have, and I'm traveling all of the time. They had three different informants have controlled buys on me by the

time that I was rated. That's why my indictment was so long is because one of the informants died, got hit by a truck, no joke, some John Gotti stuff. and they had to find another informant to replace him. I thought it was staged or something. Like they acted like he was dead so he could go somewhere else because he was some kind of detective or undercover or something. No, he was literally a meth addict that set me up, just stay out of trouble.

And then his car broke down on 77. And I don't know if he jumped in front of the semi to end his life. It was rumored that maybe he did, but the semi definitely mowed him over. So he couldn't testify on the two counts that they charged me with. but they also had, you know, two other... America's first pledge was freedom. Jeep still carries that fighting spirit.

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We pride ourselves in being a women-owned small business, so help us spread the joy and get deliciously cheesy. Visit us online at pointraisechease.com and get 15% off your first order. From our family to yours. Happy celebrating. Performance. Basically, my neighbors there in Newport set me up. How long was your run for? How long were you selling for? Once I found a plug and was selling like what I would call at scale, less than a year. Nine months, really. It wasn't long. I knew. I knew I was being investigated. I knew that they were watching me. I knew I was going to go to prison. And I told her. I said, what are you going to do when I go to prison? I'll wait for you. Five, ten years. Okay. I'm sure you will.

and she didn't thankfully and the life's been amazing ever since talks to the day you got arrested and raided yeah yeah tell us that story gosh i didn't know there was a thing called a raid machine this thing's like a tank it's it's a tank with like you know four big tires on it and i just remember i had guns all over the apartment okay because i started collecting guns i just got obsessed with them like i like them i like pistols i like shotguns i like like rifles. I like to shoot them. It was fun for me. It was my therapy while I was out there because selling drugs was stressful. So I made a run that night and got back at like three in the morning and I just passed out. Next thing you know, you can hear the loudspeaker come on. Washington

County Sheriff's Department open up. Washington County Noble Monroe Task Force. And then boom, you just hear the door get kicked in and a flashbang go off. And I wake up. I look over at my 357 sig. I look at her. She's got a 380 on the counter that I sat there for her. She's like, don't you think about it because in my mind, I had thought about this tons. I had thought about what would happen if I got pulled over. I thought about what would happen if I got raided. And I was okay with going. I didn't want to go to prison. I'm like, let me go this way. And she's like, don't you dare. So in that moment, out of respect for her, I feel like I didn't do that because we both probably would have got shot up. So I hop up on my knees on the edge of

the bed and dude comes in and he yanks me off the bed and he puts his knee in my back. And I I just remember feeling how strong dude was. Like you're on the streets, you're selling drugs strung out. You think you're tough. But this cop yanks me off the bed and I'm like, goodness gracious. And they tote me out and sit me on the porch and they're trying to question me and stuff. And I'm like, why are you here? I said, can I see the warrant?

So they gave me the warrant. They had the address wrong. I'm not saying shit. Okay, take me to jail. No, take me to jail. Thank you. Do you know why we're here? Take me to jail.

they took me to jail it was so crazy to me that that wasn't even enough for them to throw it out like my defense attorney tried to but I don't know

you've interviewed a lot of people maybe so you thought I was gonna get thrown out that was a hope I mean if you if you have a warrant with the wrong address

and I would think that that would be a disqualifier for everything you found no it's not enough did they find a lot in your house obviously the guns

but did they find drugs yeah they had a half ounce about 17 grams of meth we had just gone up to Columbus the day before and it was just crazy to me when I got my discovery packet, how I found out that it all happened. So a guy that I was really close with,

kind of in cahoots with Selling, he got pulled over the night before, over in West Virginia. I lived in Ohio. And this was in my discovery packet, his statement to the cops. He got pulled over. They found an eight ball

and some scales underneath the driver's seat of his vehicle. And he said, that's not mine. That's Reed Byers. He's in Newport right now with a large amount of methamphetamine. and then the next morning at 5 a.m. They came and got me.

Like, dang, you were that solid, huh? So, yep, that's what led to the raid. And they had, you know, many control buys on me. It was a seven-count indictment when it came back months and months after I sat in the county waiting on it. Aggravated trafficking in drugs, aggravated possession of drugs, having weapons under disability.

And it was so irritating to me. I mean, in Newport, Ohio, basically every house in the house in the, that town is in the vicinity of a school because there's only one school there. But the way that they measure the distance is not like down the street, down the street, down the street. It's as the crow flies. So they put a dot on your house and they put a dot on the school. And however far that is, is how they measure it. So it's a thousand feet within a thousand feet of a school. Mine was like 972. But by having that, it leveled up each of my felonies one degree. So the charges

I was hit with were super serious. It looked super bad. I actually had a pill bottle. of my brother's ashes in my dope box because he's the one that taught me how to sell drugs, right? Like he taught me how to bag it up, he taught me how to weigh it out. He was my older brother who was a good example of a drug dealer, if that's a thing.

So I kept him in my dope box. He had a dope box. And so when they found that next to the meth, they thought that it was heroin. So the first news article that came out, the news story called it 54 grams of heroin. Drug dealer, armed drug dealer in Newport. You know, found with 17 grams of heroin, 10 guns, and 54 grams of heroin.

I'm like, I didn't even have any heroin. I didn't do heroin. Luckily, when it came back from the labs, naturally, it didn't test positive. But they didn't redact the story out of the newspaper or anything. So that made the case, you know, look a ton worse. So boom, rated. They take me to the jail. Now I'm in jail.

Now I'm in booking. This sucks. And I was so strung out. man, I remember I was so like just gray and couldn't think when I was laying there in the cell, but it all just kind of collapsed on me that you've known that this is going to happen for a while now. Here it is. Here's the consequence of your actions. You know what you have been doing is wrong.

You know you're going to get caught. Here it is. Now what are you going to do? Now you want out, right? Like now you don't want to be here. You're in jail naturally. So I try calling my dad. And he's like, I don't know what you want me to tell you.

Okay, cool. Roger that. I call my mentor. And I hadn't talked to him, six, eight, nine, twelve, who knows how long months. So he wanted to be helpful, but he also couldn't really believe

how bad it was. And, you know, I'm booked, I'm through, I'm in the pod. You wouldn't believe in how long it takes to get sober, sober from being on meth. Have you ever, I mean, never done drugs? Okay, yeah.

I just smoked my weed, all addibles. Sometimes we'll smoke a joint. Yeah. So Mike Tyson. Shout out to him. Shout out, Tyson. You smoke weed at all or no?

No, no. Ever since I got on psych meds, it made me paranoid. Yeah. That's what it does to Matt out there, too. Mm-hmm. There's some chamomile, some light like that, some green tea. Yeah, so it took me six months to a year for my brain to finally clear up. And I had evidence that that was the case because people would come in and out of

county and they'd be there for like 30 days or 60 days and you would see them start to sober up and then they would come back and you would see them be geeked out again but then I would see me at like five six seven months compared to them at 60 days and I could tell that they were still high like I could tell people 90 days in from not doing drugs were still high because that's how strong the drug is on their brain um I was sitting around kind of terrified I'm about to go to prison like a seven count indictment if you maxed all of them out it's going to be 28 years like i was thinking worst to the worst they're like dude you're not going to get 28 years i'm like yeah but i could could get 28 years and uh there was some discussion about me getting drug court maybe getting probation that's what

i was hoping for since it was a first time major offense like i had like a drinking underage at one point and that was really it so since it was my first crime since i was strung out like i was on drugs i'd lost my brother we thought that that was going to be supportive of the case but really it looked so bad that they were not willing to to budge on me going to prison. So after seven months, I find out, all right, you got two years. That was the plea deal?

Yeah, yeah. So about the plea deal, I was trying not to rag on that process because the prosecutor and the judge have been really good to me since I've been home, but I felt pretty hurt by the process because my mentor was willing to do whatever it took to kind of show that I had a support system

and we gathered a ton of letters to try and prove the case that, like, you know, I am able to be redeemed. It was a mistake. I'm willing to do whatever I need to, to like, you know, redeem myself, which I need to be prison, and that's fine. But they made an offer for a blind plea

to two F3 felonies third degree, so like mid-range. They carry as like one to three apiece. So maximum could be six years. Minimum would be two years. But with that degree of felony, they could suspend the sentence in lieu of probation. So there's still a chance I could get community control.

And that's how my defense attorney sold it to me. She said, I think it's a good deal. I think it's the best deal you're going to get. Because I want to be like, no, screw that. But it ended up taking it and hit me with two years. And at that point, there was nothing I could do. So now I have to grapple with that. At first I was upset.

And then I said, screw it. I'm going. I've just learned for the past seven months. There's nothing you can do about it. And the guys in jail. For so long, I've been saying, man, prison suite. Like, you know, you might get two years, four years, but prison's sweet.

I'd rather do a year in prison than 90 days in jail. I'm like, yeah, you're crazy. No, you get the prison and the yards open, and there's dudes working out, and they got people playing ultimate frisbee and soccer, and there's a chapel and a barbershop and, like, food and all kinds of commissary and a library, and I'm like, wow.

Where'd they send you a low security prison? Yeah, so it's called a level two, which, in Ohio there's four tiers kind of five like four and five are blended that's maximum security three is like super heavy security and then like there's level two which is your basic and then level one is more of a camp but the guys who start off in fours and fives or goes to threes multiple time offenders typically they can level down to level two's so at a level two camp you have a whole slew of sex offenders you have a whole slew of violent offenders you have a whole slew of

you know, murderers and drug charges. Like, it was interesting to me that on a low security campus they had, you know, just what you would expect in prison,

like, you know, murderers, drug dealers, rapists. It was actually one of two biggest camps in the state. It was like over 2,400 inmates there. On top of the hill

in Noble County, Ohio. So it and Chilli Cothe are the biggest camps in the state. Thousands of inmates. There were like six units. units and each unit was two stories and I was in I started off at A2 and then I randomly got taken over the honors dorm D1 D1 which is like the sweetest dorm on campus there's you know A1 A2 B1 B2 all the way through like E and E is where they had like the sex offenders and the weirdos most of them when you go inside

I don't know what it was like you know where you were at in prison but there was two bays and there's 120 inmates on each side. And then there's three streets and each street has 40 people. So there's 20 bunk beds on one side, 20 bunk beds on the other. So I always explained it to people like, imagine going into Walmart with the lights on, loud as hell, but it's a bunch of bunk beds and guys you don't know that stink intercriminalists. And I live like that for, you know, over a year. And, you know, again, it was better than being in jail because I only saw outside, like maybe twice when I was in jail. Couldn't get a decent book.

It was all like romance novels, Debbie McComber and who knows, and maybe went to AA once every two or three months when they got around to it. But in prison, I went to A, four or five days a week. I got certified as a plumber. I'm a level one NCCER plumber because of a prison. I took a horticulture class. I got certified as a tutor. I'm a certified tutor because of prison.

Went to chapel. So I was telling you before we got on the interview, I was a captain of a kickball team. we were baking cakes a couple times a week. There's a dude in there that made taffy, so I had taffy on the regular. We would cook all the time. And I told you, you know, I've been heavy several times in my life. Like, when I was in jail, I was eating just honey buns nonstop trying to sleep and sedate myself

because I didn't want to deal with reality. I was depressed. But then when I got the two-year sentence and I got out to prison, like there was an adjustment of a month or two of me wanting to press my rack, sleep all the time when I got there. But eventually I was like, man, I'm going to come home. and my ex was kind of out of the picture. I was like, I don't want to come home and be a fat slob. I don't want to come home and be weak.

I want to come home and be sober and build a productive life, a healthy life. Maybe a similar vision to what I had when I was a teenager, becoming a scientist or who knows what I would be. Really what I wanted to do is I wanted to become a truck driver. And this is why I was like, be quiet. I get left alone. I make good money and I could maybe get paid to go back to school. And then I could do my coursework with the dragonfly headset while I was driving. It's a perfect plan.

Can't be a truck driver with a felon. Wait, really? That's what I was told. Does that depend on the state? It may. Because I know some guys get their CDL after getting out of prison. You can get your CDO. So you can?

Yes, I was in CDL class. I definitely could have gotten it. I dropped out the second day. Isn't that all you need to become a truck driver? They have to hire you. Oh, so it's the actual, it's not, you can't become a truck driver. It's certain companies won't hire you. Okay.

Because if you think about them being a transportation fleet insurance is probably an important part their business and a lot of the guys start their own business too you could definitely do that start your own forget working for someone else screw that right i could still be a truck driver yeah getting a job as a truck driver they told me that that wasn't going to happen you know what frustrates me about hearing stories like yours is that they literally could have just gave you like drug court or some like you didn't need to go to prison you sold drugs for less than a year no one died non-violent and they put you in prison for two years on top of your jail stay Because they didn't give you bail.

It's crazy. And then meanwhile, people can go get three DUIs, which is, you know, putting people at actual risk and still committing a crime like selling drugs and they get a slap on the rest of them. The third time they go to jail, at least in Connecticut.

There were sex offenders who committed more heinous crimes. There was one guy who left a baby in a car and it died and he just got probation. You know, there's some lots of touching stuff going on where the guys would get probation. It really has to do with, who you know, I think. In federal prison, there's a lot of guys because there's certain sex charges where it's just a mandatory minimum of five years. So those first time guys will get the

five years. And I was sitting there with three years. Are you kidding me? How's it comparable? Yeah, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't. No, the justice system is extremely flawed. I think the fact that you elect a prosecutor and you elect a judge is flawed because the incentive isn't injustice. The incentive is in getting elected. So now your behaviors are influenced by I need to make decisions that are going to keep people happy that will vote for me next time versus I need to make decisions that are going to cause this person to be a healthier citizen in the future. Because while we can say that we want that, if I actually do that, people may not like it and I may not get reelected. So the human incentive in that relationship is to get reelected.

The system's fault. And then also on the other side of that, it's not consistent. Like Connecticut doesn't elect the prosecutors, but in New York City, they elect the DAs. So each state is very different. just like judges. Like they're appointed in some states, not in others. In the federal system, they're appointed. U.S. attorneys are appointed.

I think it's better to be appointed. But also, it's kind of unfair too because it's a certain party that's appointing that specific prosecutor. And depending on what their mindset is, I don't know, it's like a catch-22. I don't know if there's ever really winning in that sentence. It's like picking juries, too. I think all that. You can't ever get an impartial jury. someone's always going to have opinion

and it's worse now than ever because of social media and whatnot too. I mean, look at the Luigi case right now. There's literally people that, the guy that shot the United Health Care, there's literally people that are siding with him for that shooting.

So imagine if you get one of those people on a jury, it's a mistrial because they're not going to agree with the rest of the jurors. Right. So I don't know. It's a very crazy world right now. It is.

And if we look at the young, incarceration, the criminal justice side of things. If we can just reach young people at a early enough age to give them enough opportunity and mentorship where they don't develop drug use and criminal behavior, then maybe we won't have to deal with the judge's decision because they just won't be criminals. I don't know. That's kind of the world that I hope we can build. I think we're making progress. There's a lot of resources out there and programs and opportunities for people that weren't there 10 years ago. Did anyone give you a hard time in prison because of your age, your young white kid? Or it wasn't that type of yard? I mean, yeah, it's prison. So it's not like everybody's smiling, shaking my hand, nice to meet you. You know, definitely the young white kid. So, you know, you get naturally, you get picked on anywhere you go, though, right? Like, you get picked on the YMCA or pickleball.

So it wasn't a ton different than that. Just the demographic was different. Speaking of which, I think you're the first person that showed up the studio, the pickleball thing. We're actually about to sign up for the Y down the road because they got like a nice locker room. It's a current gym I go to it. That's crap.

He doesn't have a sauna. but they have pickleball courts and whatnot. My parents have an outdoor pickleball court in their community too. Nice, yes. That they just redid. It's awesome. It's good for socialization, man.

It's a lifetime sport. I was Googling before I got on the plane. I'm like, can you take a pickle ball paddle on the plane? The answer is yes. Yeah. Was there a question? Oh, if you had a hard time at all because of rage. Not really.

It was frustrating because I couldn't leave. Like, I hated that piece. I hated the fact that I was stuck in prison. I don't think anyone likes that. No, that was hard. But you can't get away from the people. So, like, there was a couple times. There was some conflict and stuff.

I never got into what I would consider a fight. There was one time in jail that I got into it verbally with a guy. And I ended up spitting in his face. And he's like, don't fucking spit on me. And I'm like, well, there's the word. You know, what are you going to do about it? And it was all the conflict. So there's that.

And then another time, you know, kind of, I don't even know what me and do we're mad about, but we bowed up at each other. He's like, I'm not scared of you, dude. I'm like, all right here. And that was that. And then there's one time in prison. The dude I play cards with all the time. It was late and we were goofing around.

And I slid his sandal down the street. And he's like, go get my fucking sandal. I'm like, no. He's like, go get it. I could tell like he was like irate mad. And I'm like, this isn't good, but I'm not getting his sandal. So like he wants to like start grappling. And he's probably like 230.

And I've finally lost a bunch of weight. I'm like 190. and so like I grab up with them and then you know trying not to fall to the ground so I grab like the bed and I'm squeezing on them like Joe chill chill chill because the cops were going to come the cops did come but they didn't come and like see us so got away from that and that was kind of the end of that and there was another dude which I don't really know I think he repeatedly caught an attitude when we played spades and I didn't like that so there's some things that he said that I felt like we're disrespectful so I kind of brought up it to his attention, I was like, hey, I'm like, you know, I don't really know what this is about, but like, you know, here's the deal. And he's, you know, we just kind of set it up verbally. And that was one thing that prison really taught me is that if you have a conflict with somebody, you need to go resolve it immediately because it's not going to go away in there. So it's better to just go resolve it. If you have to fight about it, whatever, and if not,

then it's over with. In the real world, like, it's a useful lesson, man, but it's just different out here. I remember when I came home and I saw the way people at convenience stores or honking hordes at each other drive and they talk to each other. and treat each other. I'm like, that doesn't fly in prison. Like, you'll get your rocked from acting like that. So that's been an adjustment. What year did you come home?

2020, during COVID. How long did you end up serving? Like 21 months on two years. I got all the good behavior I could for the plumbing program that I did. They gave me days off for that. Were you making good money in there? Like, from paid by the state? No.

They didn't pay. It was like 40 bucks a month. Yeah. It's about what the feds pay. 30 bucks a month, depending. There's different tiers and levels. Yeah. I wonder if they'll ever change that.

Because there's like some correctional facilities I'll visit where they actually could, like the work release programs, they keep their pay and then they pay a percentage to the facility. But, I mean, the actual labor aspect of it is kind of crazy and that they force you to have a job for so little pay. That always stood out to me the amount of hours you put in and how little you get paid. And the guys that don't have anything, I did have an amount of support. Right. Like I lived pretty good in there. I had commissary and I had a phone time.

So it was good for me. but then I saw the guys who didn't in guys that were cutting hair for a $1.50 or, you know, would do your laundry for you or make your bed for you or hustling taffy, hustling cakes. That was all they had was the only way that, my next door neighbor Lee, who actually came to my swearing in when I got elected to the board education. He drove down from Columbus and a flat bill and a bull shirt with his muscles and tattoos popping out. And to support me when I got sworn in, he slept next to me, and he sold pop.

And the math on the, was he would make $2 per case and he would have people coming in and out all the time buying pops. And I'm like, I'm like, really you're doing all this

for $2 a case? But you got to think, you know, you sell three, four, five cases a week and that's six or $8. $8 is a lot in prison. That's all kinds of soups

and tuna and rice and stuff so you can eat good on that money. So what else, man? I'm curious about the board education part because that stuck out to me. I love that aspect of your story.

So you get out, And then, you know, three, four years later, you run for board of education. How does that even happen? How do you get elected? I've heard of some felons getting, like, the Bridgeport mayor, who I want to have on the show, but they're ducking me right now. But I'm on top of it. He went to prison because of something he did while in office, gets out, runs, and he's now mayor again. Interesting.

And I think you see that a fair amount in politics where, like, guys will catch charges while they're involved in politics and then trying to, remain in politics. Like Mayor Adams. Or Donald Trump. Just as examples. So my story is a lot different. And like that's kind of the intention on coming on the show today. Like we've got the adversity and the prison experience as part of it.

And super relevant. Like over the past four years since I've been home is really where the transformation's been and the impact's been. Yeah. Tell us about that. Tell us about the comeback. Gosh. So I mentioned that I wanted to be a truck driver.

Well, that led me in the direction. I was sitting in front of my case manager at Westbrook Health Services. place I was committed by when I was a teenager and I still get my medication through them today. And I said, you know, truck driving didn't work out. I don't know what I'm going to do. I was kind of looking at this peer recovery stuff. It seems like the certification is just that you have lived experience with addiction of mental health.

She said, yeah, we got positions open right now for that. I said, really? So next thing you know, I'm a youth peer recovery supporter at Westbrook Health Services, the same place I've been getting treatment at for over 10 years. and I was able to help young people 12 to 25 overcome their challenges with mental health and addiction. So it was really promising full circle.

Like that's what really helped me found and grow my faith, that God had a purpose for me, that all of the things I had gone through up into that point were there for a reason that I was called to be a witness to share this testimony, to share it with people in the world

who want to make a difference but may not know how. Like you've survived this stuff. You've seen the way that the prison system is. You see the way that a broken family is. You know what works and you know what doesn't. So boom, I'm full speed.

Six months, I'm a youth peer supporter. I bring West Virginia its first Healthy Kids Running series, leading kids 2 to 18 to the sport of running, become a volunteer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. And next thing, you know, I'm running in a shark costume, raising thousands of dollars for their hike for hope. It was bananas. And then I'm getting invited to serve on different boards of directors,

you know, the Boys and Girls Club and the Community Service Council and the AFSP they invited me. And out of nowhere, I remember with Healthy Kids Running Series, I wanted to make it the best that I could. So I was like, well, let's get the mayor to come out and blow the air horn. So I called the office, mayor was like, no, we can't make it.

I said, well, would you be willing to write a proclamation? They said, yeah, do you have a template? So boom, I send in the proclamation. And I asked my mentor, because I didn't even know what a city council was, really. I had no clue like what government was in these different things. I said, would it be on their agenda if they were going to approve this proclamation?

And my mentor was like, probably. So I checked the agenda. It wasn't on there. And I said, can I go to city council? He said, yeah, it's public. I said, okay. So I went down to the city council meeting. I sat in the back. The mayor's doing his executive summary. And he said, I had somebody reach out about Healthy Kids Running Series. I think I saw him back there. Why don't you come up and talk about Healthy Kids Running Series? Ian, I had never spoken in public at this scale before. I was terrified. So I go up, do a fine job. And I remember at the end of that meeting, I was sitting there and I was looking at City. council and one woman spoke up her name's windy tuck biggest inspiration to me professionally and she said parkersburg's getting 22 million dollars from the american rescue plan act the covid money we want to know how you your business your organization how you guys have been affected so we can better spend this money i'm like that is a great way to be a public servant i'm really glad she asked she must care so i linked up with her afterwards we developed the friendship organized some meetings with different non-profit leaders to hear about like how their

organizations had been affected. But what stood out to me at that meeting is that when she was talking soliciting public input, everybody else looked like they were fed up, like they didn't want her asking those, making that statement, talking to the audience, they didn't care what she had to say. And I just remember, I thought that you had to be a lawyer, have a master's degree or PhD to be elected. But when I looked at city council, I thought these are normal people. And I thought you had to be able to draft an ordinance. And I'm thinking, I'm reading this ordinance. And there's no way that the folks on council actually wrote this. They have a city attorney to do that.

I'm thinking, well, I can read this. I could technically probably write this if I had to. And I trust that I'm a decent person. What if I could run and make a difference? So I end up running for city council back in 2021 in Belprie. As a write-in. I knock on like 1,500 doors, raise a couple grand, do everything under God's creation to interact with people,

listen to people, learn about them. And ended up pulling in 46% of the vote, which I mean at first I was super upset I was like that's a loss no good my friends in politics said no you don't get it that never happens I actually have a book called winning political campaigns and it has a little section

in and about writing campaigns and it gives a couple stories of like shoe in cases where people should have won the election but because they were write-ins they did not and it summarized the advice as our advice on writing campaigns don't do it so I got 46% of the vote I only lost by like maybe 19

my friend said this doesn't happen. If you were on the ballot, you would have won. If you want a future in politics, you have it. And I was relieved. The way that some of the people treated me, they were rumoring that I was selling meth to seven to nine-year-olds out of an ice cream truck. So in the article, during my sentencing hearing,

the prosecutor was quoted saying, he rode around in his van, selling drugs out of it as if it were an ice cream truck. I'm like, well, it was a camper van. I did drive around. in it. I did sell drugs out of it. I never said it was an ice cream truck, but those are his words, not mine. Well, the community took those, twisted them and said I was selling meth to kids like it was an ice cream truck. So that hurt, right? Like I dedicated my life to help young

people and I end up on drugs and y'all are saying me I'm doing the opposite, but that's politics. I had one woman who was on city council. She said, how do you have all your teeth if you used to do all that meth? I said, well, I didn't, you know, smoke it. I put it up my nose. She said, but you got nice skin too. I said, well, not everybody looks like they do meth that does it. And she flipped me off as she rolled into the polling place that day as I was sign waving in front of the polls. And I learned that those people on city council in that small town, they didn't want my help. All I wanted to do in was help. Like community, volunteerism, service, that's been my life since I've been home.

Like you can tell my family life is a little bit broken, a little bit absent. But when I can be helpful, I can be useful, I can use those things that I've gone through to kind of help minister to other people or share and connect with other people. Like that lights me on fire. That makes me feel okay. Like life, you know, can be dark at times, but still living with a mental illness. I definitely struggle. Sometimes I feel like somebody asked me the day, like, which self-help guru do you feel you relate to the most? And it's like not Tony Robbins or Eric Thomas or Brian Tracy or Jim Rohn.

But like Duncan Trussell or Theo Vaugham because they get what it's like to feel so fucked up all the time. Like I get the success strategies. I get the pushing through and like how to be super successful. Like we said, you know, I got elected. But a lot of people don't get what it's like to look successful and be super fucked up. And I embrace that because there are tons of people who are super messed up and they need somebody as an example that can be successful. So while I wasn't successful in that first campaign, I had a governor's candidate reach out to me on Facebook Messenger. I thought this was a spam bot.

He said, hey, read, I hear good things about you. I want to share my personal recovery story with you, been sober since 2004, running for governor. My name's Chris Miller. Like, who is this person? So I Google him. Boom. Chris Miller filed his pre-candidacy paper. He was the first candidate in the race in West Virginia. Owns a big car dealership chain across the state.

I'm like, all right. So next thing you know, I drive down to Huntington two hours away to Ritter Park and we develop a friendship. I tell him my story. He tells me his. He said, region, I think I found a friend today. I like to learn more about what you think we can do to help this state. So I was on fire.

I'm like, wow. Potentially the next governor of West Virginia, regardless of party and some ideology, the next governor of West Virginia wants my help on how to overcome mental health and addiction in our state and empower, encourage young people and families. This is incredible.

So boom, I'm helping Chris with this campaign. I want him to get elected. Boom, now I'm like, you know, kind of like a political volunteer consultant. And, you know, we, I helped him with that campaign for a good while so much that I had some mental health crisis going on a year and a half ago

that I ended up needing to move my environment and I based my moving choice on a few factors. One, there's a downtown apartment 495 a month. You can't beat that. Two, my best friend lived in the area and three, Chris Miller lived in the same city. So I moved there to Huntington and supported him in his campaign,

set up some roots, took care of my health, got back on track, wasn't suicidal anymore. And then just randomly, I wanted to run for magistrate initially to help reform the criminal justice system because I thought, like, what better way than to sit in front of people who were struggling and try and make, I'm not going to say fair, but a biased decision knowing what doesn't work on the inside. But you can't run for magistrate in West Virginia if you're a felon. I get it.

And my friend, he had already filed pre-candidacy to run for board education. So I had him at lunch. I'm like, man, this is exciting. Like, how's it going? He said, I'm not really sure. I said, what do you mean you're not sure? You've already filed your papers. He's like, yeah, I'm like, you need to go home tonight and decide if you want this. Because here's my experience in politics. And I believe you can win. You're the right person. And I'm happy to help you. just have to do X, X, X, and X, and you have to first want it and believe you can do it. He came back and said that he wanted it and never had quite the amount of belief necessary to make it happen. The way he explained it to me is that I lived in a district where nobody had filed to run. So if I filed a run and nobody else did, that I would win by single-shotting me voting for myself and I wouldn't have to run a campaign.

So the way I looked at it is if I was going to help consult with him and show him how to win, what better way than just telling him than to run a campaign adjacent and also get elected and then be able to do good through the community helping the school system encouraging young people it seemed like a massive win-win

well he explained it wrong and we were running against each other and I had a full pool of people that I had to run against and despite trying to help him for several weeks I finally caught on that he wasn't in a place where he was ready to do what he had to win which is fine you know he's 27 he's still

great kid, you might have a political future, do a great job. But I'm like, I know what I have to do to win. Like I got to get this website built. I've got to get a fundraiser together. I have to start calling my network, letting them know what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, looking at talking about the change that I'd like to make. And I have to start going out here in the community and banging on doors. I knocked on 3,000 doors over three months. I'm knocking on 30 to 100 doors a day, plus going to events in the evening, trying to take care of my health, schedule my naps because I found out that you can only be nice to people for so long. And if I'm at your front door and I'm getting irritable and arguing, I'm like, wait a second, I've got to go home and rest. Yeah, man, three months of

pounding doors, social media, advertisements, meeting people, sending a message of hope, being transparent about my prison experience, being transparent about my addiction and my poor choices and where I come from and talking about how many young people are suicidal. How many young people, you know, are living in poverty or live with their grandparents, like 50% of kids are with their grandparents. So where are their parents dead on drugs or in prison? Those are some top answers. So who better to be on a board of education to help influence decision making that has real world experience that knows the inside of that? Like, you know, there's different facets of what makes a board or a body effective. But having diverse representation that represents the people who are actually

in the system is necessary. And typically, man, I don't know who else that's, vocal and out about these different challenges that's been elected. But I felt super grateful that on May 14th, Cabell County spoke and they chose somebody that despite their past decisions and their circumstances, because of their commitment to work hard, to be honest. And over the four past four years, you know, starting my own business, serving with all these different nonprofits that I've demonstrated that I care. You know, they chose me to represent them. And I just resigned, like I told you back in November. I'm moving on to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia,

which is close to D.C. in just a couple weeks. There's a community entrepreneurs over there that I'm getting connected to to to join to kind of create some chosen family. I'm going to go back to writing my book. I was working on that last January, filing for the campaign, you know, derailed that. And I made that sacrifice, but it's still in my heart. I need to finish the book. I need to go back to booking out my speaking calendar.

You know, I was supposed to come see you the day after the election, basically. It was May 17th, and I couldn't make it because I was so burnt out. So there are priorities in terms of getting my message out on a larger scale, creating content that helps people recover, helps people drive success, feel connected, and going out and kind of earning and acquiring the resources that are necessary to bring back the West Virginia, invest in our communities, and create a world that traumatizes less children. Because I really do think that's a solution.

What do you think is the biggest lesson you want people to take away from your story? That there's something inside them that the world needs. my mentor he was setting across from me at noble and i looked at him i said what what purpose could i have i've thrown my life away he said well look around you you know there are people on the outside that that need your testimony that needs you to witness what you've gone through and like i didn't get it at the time but he casted that seat of me and i was grateful i'm lucky to have that mentor and over time he was right i saw he saw something in me that i didn't see in myself but that's what the world needs So I think we're all called to work to at least be open

to what's inside of us that can blossom to help others, but also to see, recognize, and encourage that in others. Because maybe there are things you're blind to that are inside you that the world needs, right? This podcast that came from, I asked you how to start. You're like, oh, somebody encouraged me to start it and look at this. Look at the stage you've created. So there's something inside you that the world needs.

There's something inside you, whoever's listening that the world needs. You may not feel like it. I'm telling you that it's true and that I pray that. that you will be open to finding it because once you do and you share that with the world, your life will be amazing beyond anything you ever thought that you could believe. Yeah, and sometimes, you know, you have to see it to believe it. That's why I think when people hear these stories like that we always start at the childhood because that's where everyone comes from and then we finish with, you know, the success to it.

And that's inspiring if you're an addict or at home or whatever's going on in your life, you're going through something and you hear a story like yours, you know you could do it. You walk in the studio, you see all the pictures, you see what was literally created for nothing. Like, you know, you look, even when I was at Whole Foods and I had a job and everything, I didn't have legacy, I didn't have anything I was building.

So when you see all of this, you know, it gives you something to believe in. It's inspiring. And you don't need a big, flashy team like all these celebrities. I mean, it's just me, you know, doing this and my buddy helps out and my brother and stuff, but you don't need any of that. You know, you literally just, it's, at this studio rent is $1,100 a month

because no one in Danbury would rent me an office space, and I came to Richfield, and I found this. Not bad. And two floors, 1100 bucks. You could live here. Yeah, but there's no shower, but this is possible, you know? They didn't credit check me. They didn't do any of that.

It's a business lease you get an LLC. It's so, you know, it's possible to do. And they didn't judge me for my criminal history or anything like that. And honestly, at this stage, like anyone that judges you or me or anyone for their criminal history, you know, F them, you don't need them, you know, build up success is the best revenge. You know, all the people that used to shit talk me, well, come a long way, you know. What are you going to say now?

How could you hate it? It's a comeback. So, Reid, I appreciate you coming on the show today, man. I'm looking forward to seeing you beat my buddy out there and some ping pong. And, yeah, man, safe travels back. Happy holidays. And it's a pleasure having you. glad we got to do this today yeah thanks for having me it's been a pleasure and shout out one

more time kyle overmire for bridging the connection man