Transcription of Drugstory Interview

Since they post new interviews on their site daily, the interview will soon end up on the bottom of the page. Please see below for the entire interview, minus the pictures.

The lovely Lacey Greenwood (5'7") has caused quite a stir in the drug world with her message boards and more recently her blog. I first discovered her message to the drug trade on You Tube:"The Hierarchy of Cocaine Traffic". Lacey is also a writer and has recently launched her first book Affirmations, which is a fun girly novel, but more interesting then your average "chick lit". In her book you'll go on the journey with Mary-Ellen Kline and her friends, there's even the daughter of a cocaine magnate whose journey you'll follow.

What she's wearing: Silk crepe cocktail dress from Chanel, alligator-skin boots from Manolo Blahnik, and around her neck was a collection of charms; a baphomet as her protector, an "A" for anarchy, and an inverted crucifix which was a birthday present from her boyfriend.

Her style is classic and feminine. Lacey adds fun details like jewelry and mixes prints with her smart wardrobe to balance her professionalism with her youthfulness.

Most Memorable Cartel Moment: In grade 7 she recalls waking to the sound of gunfire from outside. "It sounded like firecrackers, like the fourth of July," she recalls. Groggy, she went downstairs and out to the back by the pool, where she found a half-dozen militants had stormed the property. Lacey hid in a closet for sixteen hours before La Jolla police discovered her.

Why she left the business: Aside from the legal issues, Lacey found the misogyny of the business unsettling. "Men would leer at you and occasionally proposition you, but they rarely wanted to do business with you."

Breaking Out: It took several years for her to completely separate from her parents' cartel. "It's a huge operation, for one thing. For another, I kept getting lured back in by the money. Once I broke myself of that habit and started to make money through modeling, I started a crusade against the life I led."

Ultimate Goal: "I want to take those fuckers down." Nobody can deny the violence and corruption in the drug trade, but Lacey Greenwood seems to have an unnatural hostility to the life that gave her so much. She refuses to comment on why.

The Accessory She Wouldn't Leave the House Without: I should have known she would say the watch because she wasn't late for our coffee date!

Her own goals: She wants to make a successful living as a writer now that she is over 30 and cannot get any modeling gigs.

Work Ethic: Lacey doesn't know the meaning of the word "quit", even though that's what she did with the Madera cartel. It's one thing to willingly leave an unstable environment, and quite another to fix your eyes to the prize and refuse to give up no matter how the odds are stacked against you. "When all else fails--hop on the couch and pull your skirt up," she says with a laugh and a wink.

Embargo Essentials: The key to the drug trade, Lacey says, is having the highest quality product available. This means exploiting potential transportation problems, like embargos and government inspections. "The trick is to make sure these problems hurt everyone but you." She's carried that over into her non-drug life by spinning gold from the myriad problems that plague models, publicists, and writers alike.

On Hype: They say we can't win the drug war, but Lacey Greenwood's experience tells her otherwise. "Look, the dealers and the pushers are very smart, very sophisticated--though you wouldn't expect that. That's why it's hard to beat them on the corners and the streets. You go for the top of the snake--I'm telling you, the farmers don't even know what they're growing half the time, and everyone between farmer and dealer is completely incompetent. Everyone's making money off of everyone else, so if they got some people in there without guns blazing and just tricked them and fucked them around, we'd win the drug war in no time."

Drug Gripes: Lacey just doesn't understand why people would want to buy these things in the first place. "Don't they realize how artificial and temporary it is? Why would people prefer this to a natural high like working out." As Lacey's toned body can attest, she does not regularly use drugs.

Advice to Fellow survivors of CF's: "Use your parents' money to figure out something--anything--you want to do that you can be self-sufficient doing, and stick with it until you're out of their house for good."

Courtesy of Drugstory

Affirmations plug from the Drugstory

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet with Drugstory.org, a website dedicated to many drug-related issues, where I was interviewed as one of their "cartel-bred professionals." The entire interview can be found on their website (look for the article, Lacey Greenwood: Unfortunate Circumstances). While the interview has more to do with my family background and drug ties, it was a nice place for them to plug Affirmations! :-)

Drugstory is a Washington-based website/magazine with a special interest in giving tips for drug activists. According to their website, they get several hundred hits daily from drug addicts all over North America.

Joelle Anthony Interview (my first interview as a writer!)

I recently had the pleasure of asking author, Lacey Greenwood, the Friday Five questions. Her debut novel, AFFIRMATIONS, is available now at Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble and other bookstores. This California writer, born and raised in Los Angeles, likes to blog about her writing here www.writergal9.blogspot.com and for a side project, she's an assistant at the PR firm of Eileen Koch & Co. She also took on an independent client, rock band Abysmal Crucifix.

Q. What’s on your iPod or CD player?

A. Michael Bublé, Diana Krall, Sarah McLachlan, Jewel. Broadway show tunes, some opera.

Q. Do you eat right, get plenty of exercise, sleep eight hours or do you sit in front of your computer and write all the time?

A. I am a physical fitness nut, which is why I'm in great shape and gave that character trait to Nefertari in my novel. Though it's hard to do that when you’re writing and juggling a full time job, I've managed to make time every day to exercise, and I always eat right.

Q. What do you read in the bathroom?

A. J.Crew catalogs, fashion mags. As a former glamour model, I find it interesting to see when photographers, advertising firms, or modeling agencies value sculpted, muscular physiques in women over the traditional skeleton look.

Q. Where do you see yourself in ten years?

A. Successful career in writing, communications and/or marketing; married, kids and an MBA.

Q. Do you use an outline when you write or just let it flow?

A. I just let it flow. No use using an outline, since you’re going to make lots of changes anyway. For example, I never intended Nefertari, one of the characters in my debut novel to be from a drug family, even though my own family [the successful Madera cartel of La Jolla, California] were drug dealers who were taken down in 1989 after a months-long operation revealing intimate details about the way the business operated.. I just decided to let it happen because I thought that diversity would make it more interesting.

Thanks, Lacey for being our first author interview (except me, of course!).

Courtesy of Joelle Anthony