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

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

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

It would have been very easy for Haggard and Jones to score meth

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3599275

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=39684

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

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

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

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

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/11/haggards-church-fires-him-he-has.html

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

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

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

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

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