Series: Meth: Shattering Lives In Northern Nevada

A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that
methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

ROUGH ROAD OF RECOVERY

Ian Lister sat proudly at the kitchen table in a Reno halfway house
one Friday night in February, digging in his pockets for a six-month
coin from Narcotics Anonymous.

Earlier that night, he'd had a Coke while his buddy had a rum and
Coke. Together they celebrated Lister's six months without methamphetamine.

"I've pretty much beaten the biggest part of what they call the
trigger process," Lister, 26, said. "When I cashed my check they gave
me a couple drink tokes, but I just handed them to my friend.

"I'm proud that when I say I'm going to do something, I do it and I
don't procrastinate," Lister said. "I'm proud of all the things I
said I was going to do "" see my kids, get the job. I'm even saving 5
percent of everything I make."

But it's not easy. From the time he got out of rehab to the time he
entered a transitional home for men, he was offered drugs or alcohol
20 times. Within two weeks, the tally was up to 47. It's a common
problem for recovering addicts "" avoiding a highly addictive drug
that is all around you and constantly being offered.

Lister's answer: "I kind of wait for the next time. I can't wait to
get to 48. I know I have to make it a complete shutout."

A long-time user

Lister started using meth at 13, when his friend's mother would give
it to the two boys. Since then, he's been in and out of the Carson
City Jail about 20 times.

When his sister, Tonya Lister, found out he'd tried the drug, she
helped get him high. (In 1993, Tonya, 18, would be shot and killed by
Allen Bean, an ex-boyfriend she was going to testify against in a drug case.)

Two years after his first taste of the drug, Lister was traveling to
Sacramento weekly to pick up a quarter-pound of meth to sell. In
2002, he was convicted of possession of a stolen vehicle and spent
about nine months in prison.

He stayed clean for six or seven months."It was like, 'It's party
time now that I'm off parole,'" he said.

He was arrested again in November 2004 for selling meth in Carson
City, went back to prison and back to rehab. After two weeks in
rehab, he got caught smoking a cigarette and landed back in jail.

"When I found myself back in jail, I thought, 'What have I done?'"
Lister said. "I ruined my one chance."

'Some aren't ready'

Less than 12 hours after getting out of rehab, Lister was sitting on
a couch in Step 1, a halfway house on Sierra Street in Reno.

There's a waiting list to get into Step 1 Inc., which has 16 beds for
men coming out of the justice system. The program is designed to be
about three months, but director Joe Filippi lets men stay longer if
they're working a plan.

"By obeying these house rules, you will help other alcoholics or
addicts who come in here," Filippi told Lister that morning.

Filippi is a former heroin addict who recently got his civil rights
restored and now has full custody of his teenage son.

"Some of the guys aren't ready," Filippi said. "All you can do is put
the seed in the dirt and water it."w

Men pay either $125 a week or $440 a month to stay at Step 1. They're
expected to do chores, attend several AA or NA meetings during the
week, get a job and keep curfew.

"This place is recovery," Filippi said. "If you're not into recovery,
you leave. The decision is made on how that person is involved in his
recovery."

Within days Lister found a job with a temp agency working in a
warehouse in south Reno. He started attending meetings and working a
12-step program.

He was beginning Step 4, to make a searching and fearless moral
inventory of yourself, on the night of his six-month anniversary.

Lister, a singer and songwriter, sang at one of the last AA meetings
he attended. He sang a song he wrote just over a year ago on
Christmas, when he relapsed. He sang it sitting at the kitchen table
at Step 1, while other guys got coffee and watched the winter
Olympics in the other room.

"The blood in my veins saturates/ And never again, I tell myself once
more/ Don't want anymore."

He was looking forward to weekend practices with a band, Betrayal --
all former drug users -- that he formed while in rehab, and recording
"Relapse" at a studio soon.

Editor's note: Two and a half weeks after Ian Lister was interviewed
for this story, he was asked to leave Step 1 for violating the rules.
Multiple attempts to contact him have been unsuccessful.