May 30, 1999
Study Butte, Texas, USA

4pm. "It makes me feel wonderful," Gordon says of Meth’. "I like it!"

"Sorry if I’m always looking this way, but I gotta keep my right ear to ya. I went deaf in my left ear while in prison, which was of benefit to me; prison is a noisy place. When I laid down, I’d put my good ear on the pillow and that would block out some of the noise, so I was finally able to get some sleep."

"The blacks in prison have embraced the Muslim religion," Gordon says, so they can get special benefits, such as eating after 6pm - as the religion dictates. "The cooks are black and they serve a special, more generous meal."

Gordon went to prison for five and half years for cultivating ’Gator Weed’ - which "was so pungent..." he said proudly, "people told me they can walk into a room where others are smoking various buds and they can recognize my herb. There is some adventure in growing it. Nocturnal visits to the garden... I loved it. It’s exiting! There is a great deal of camaraderie in passing around a joint. I like recreational drugs particularly to enhance experiences. I was a work-out nut before, and never touched speed or coke or any of that. I was introduced to speed when I started hanging out with bikers. It didn’t hurt them, so I tired it. ’What’s so terrible about this?’ I thought. ’It feels wonderful.’ I used to work for Dow Chemical, Cessna Aircraft and Beach Aircraft. None of them would hire a convict, now."

"In Mexico, many state governors will allow people to grow marijuana. I met a guy in prison who was in 20 years for marijuana. He had a large marijuana plantation in Mexico, several acres, and said he wasn’t worried about getting in trouble, because he paid a "mordita" to the governor. He was living in the US and selling it. He had a fight with his girl friend and she ratted him out. That was his first offense, but they through the book at him."

"In 1987, I had a friend in Humboldt county, above San Fran, who had a large plot of land and asked me to grow a crop there. There was all kinds of hippies buying land up there by growing marijuana. They’d buy the land over the years, paying the previous land owner after each harvest. There was a lady with a master’s degree in literature growing at that time. She couldn’t make that kinda money any other way." Gordon smiled thoughtfully in remembrance, "Yup... we had quite an affair goin’ for a while. "Gordon McGregor"- I choose that name because it sounded like a good farmer’s name. That’s what everyone knew me as in California."

"Doctors are the biggest drug dealers. They will write a prescription for anything. Prozac is very expensive. Doctors and pharmacists get a huge percentage from the sales. It’s unreal. Most drug dealers don’t even make fifty percent."

"Have you ever felt any adverse side effects from coke or speed?"
"Only sleeplessness... but that is to be expected. Oh, and I get a bloody nose from coke. I didn’t like that, so I put it in my drinks."

"That’s why a lot of people live here - the availability of good weed and coke. It’s cheep too. I don’t know why any body has a problem with it."
"There is a lot of alcoholism here."
"Yeah, I call ’em ’Beer Sots’. A lot of people just drink all day long."

"Asenlix," Gordon said, "Is just as strong as any coke I’ve ever done. Ecstasy makes me feel like I am friends with everybody. Why make that illegal?"

"This little darlin’," said Gordon, showing me a little green and white capsule in the palm of his hand, "I like when I am driving. I pop one of these and I’m awake for 8 hours. It’s legal speed. It is as good or better than speed or coke. It last much longer than coke. It is the most powerful diet pill available. It will increase you metabolism ten fold. The weight will melt off you."

"I’ve done every drug except LSD - only because I believed what they wrote about it. Mushrooms - now that’s a wild trip!"
"Mushrooms are a hallucinogenic, like LSD. These pills are not?"
"It will just make an extrovert out of you."
"But, I don’t have any weight to lose. Should I eat a lot?"
"You won’t feel like eating for at least six hours. You will need to drink a lot. You will be thirsty."

Gordon tells me that Adolf Hitler, whom he admires for various reasons, is responsible for the invention of methamphetamines, which his troops carried with them so they could march for days without food and fight all night without sleep. "Yup, it was his scientists that discovered that!"

"They’ve got prisons popping up like mushrooms all over this state. I’d say they they have tripled in the past five years. ’Zoos....,’ that’s what I call them. They have high school students going on tours through there dressed up like guards. I saw them while I was in there. They want to bend their minds early."

"I went to work every day in prison. I didn’t even take Saturdays or Sundays off. I stayed out of there as much as I could. Most states pay their prisoners something for their work, not much, maybe 15 cents an hour. Not in Texas - your up a creek if you don’t have someone sending you money for convinces."
"What did your wife think about it?" "She always stood behind me and came to visit whenever she could-- usually once a month. She’d drive 500 miles there and 500 miles back. There was a prison not far from her, but they sent me almost as far away as they could. What determines where you are sent is how they can best utilize you-- if you have a skill or something. They don’t care where your home is."

"In prison, they asked me if I was collecting social security. I was, so they took it away. Then they wanted the money the state already gave me. I paid into it. It’s my money."

"I’ve been married five times. I’ve been married to Roberta 9 years now. She is a deaf-mute; she can’t hear or talk."
"How old are you?"
"69, but I didn’t expect to see 30."

"How do you feel about religious faith?"
"I started studying religion at age thirteen. All of them said the same thing: "Treat your fellow man as you would want to be treated." There is no need to make a religion about that. I had to go see a psychiatrist. My parents excommunicated me when I told them of my finding - that there is no "God." That’s what religion did for me. It warped me. It gave me an enlarged conscience you might say; but, I don’t see how any educated person can believe in religion."