![\"rogers_brianrhea_18-1\"](\"http:\/\/stigmaunmasked.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rogers_BrianRhea_18-1.jpg\")
<\/h1>\nBrian Graham sits\u00a0in a lawn chair in a dimly lit, unheated, hidden room in the dead of winter. It was two years ago. He’s in front of a table where a tea candle is lit. He holds a jar of freshly concocted methamphetamine fuel and in his lap sits a gas generator used to turn the fuel into a powder. The secret room discovered behind the drywall of his bedroom closet in this old Victorian-era style home now is a meth lab. <\/span><\/p>\n How much time elapsed is unclear but the next thing he knows, the 33-year-old is awakened from a stupor. He thinks he passed out from chemical fumes and exhaustion. It’s just in time to see the jar of meth fuel rolling down the carpet. The fuel meets the candle and in an instant flames consume Brian\u2019s body. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI ripped up the rug tried to roll over on it. I was already burned. It didn\u2019t matter at that point. I was just trying to save the house,\u201d Graham said.<\/span><\/p>\n By the time Graham puts out the fire he’s already badly burned. Later, doctors will tell him he’s suffered third-degree burns over 25 percent of his body. He crawled out of the wall and took his clothes off to assess the devastation his skin had just endured.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs I took my pants off, my flesh just came off with my pants,\u201d Graham said.<\/span><\/p>\n Graham looked at himself in the mirror and cried. He pleaded to God that he didn\u2019t want this life anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n The drug death grip<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Methamphetamine, a stimulant affecting the central nervous system, is a nationwide epidemic. Muncie, Indiana in Delaware County has been hit particularly hard. Brian and his wife Rhea\u2019s home was the location of one of the 148 seized meth labs in Delaware County in 2014. That number climbed by almost 40 percent to 235 labs seized in 2015. <\/span><\/p>\n The Graham\u2019s were once part of that problem. But now sober for two and a half years, they’re aiming to be part of the solution.<\/span><\/p>\n Abusive relationships were once a theme in Rhea\u2019s life. From her brother growing up, to ex-husbands, Rhea had endured pain before.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe tortured me and did bad things to me unspeakable things and it\u2019s a wonder I\u2019m a functioning adult now for some of the things I went through as a child,\u201d Rhea said.<\/span><\/p>\n Even though she moved out at 14 years old, Rhea\u2019s bond with her mother strengthened in her adulthood. When her mother died seven years ago Rhea said she felt lost. That\u2019s when the heavy drug use started.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI never grieved properly from my mother passing away,\u201d Rhea said. \u201cShe was such an important part of my life and something to make me feel better and mask those feelings and never deal with them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In the beginning, Rhea enjoyed methamphetamine. When she began using everyday she became dependent on it. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGoing to the races with super high octane gasoline. Full throttle into a wall pretty much until I stopped, I had never felt that much of a euphoria,\u201d Rhea said. \u201cIt\u2019s false and it\u2019s temporary, but it topped all the bad things that I thought about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It was nothing compared to the first time she shot meth intravenously. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe minute I put a needle in my arm is the minute I lost every bit of control that I thought I had in my life,\u201d Rhea said.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It was the same for Brian.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first tried shooting meth it was over,\u201d Brian said. “Today, I feel like when I pulled the plunger back on that needle, it just pulled at the fabric of my soul. I was trapped.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Rhea isolated herself from friends and family. She would stay awake for days, even weeks on end. She wouldn\u2019t eat or drink anything for days while she was high. Once 190 pounds, she dissolved to a sickly 105 pounds in less than a year. She would go so long without food she’d have seizures. <\/span><\/p>\n Rhea would catch herself staring out of the blinds paranoid that the police were coming. The hallucinations felt real. She could no longer differentiate reality from dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat line of reality and this constant dream state you felt like you were in from being up, your body shuts down your mind goes nuts,\u201d Rhea said.<\/span><\/p>\n For Brian, meth wasn’t his drug of choice at first. He used cocaine. When he ran out of money for cocaine one night, meth was his only option. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI looked at people who made meth or used meth like most people who don\u2019t use drugs look at addicts,\u201d Brian said. \u201cI was like I can\u2019t believe those people.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n But after a few uses, cocaine was old news. Brian had become one of those people.<\/span><\/p>\n A euphoric rush turned nightmare<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Rhea and Brian knew each other 10 years before ever going on a date. They were in the alternative rock band \u201cChain Theory\u201d together. When they finally got together, they were making more than music. Brian began cooking meth in his secret room. The room that shared a wall with the bedroom he and Rhea slept in. She had no idea.<\/span><\/p>\n Brian didn\u2019t cook to make money. He did it to support his habit. Lithium batteries, lighter fluid, drain cleaner. He knew what went in it. That didn\u2019t stop him.<\/span><\/p>\n Brian wasn\u2019t just addicted to using meth; he loved the process of making meth. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt’s just as much of an addiction as the actual drug,\u201d Brian said. \u201cMost addicts become addicted not only to the drugs but the lifestyle.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n The drug use was as toxic to their relationship as it was their bodies.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA huge part of meth is sex. Just the sex is incredible. It’s equivalent to ecstasy except to the ninth power of ecstasy,\u201d Rhea said. \u201cThat part of it is addictive, as well. That\u2019s an attractive thing for people who do meth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That factor became too addictive for Brian. He was unfaithful to Rhea.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA lot of my drug use was fueled by chasing women,\u201d Brian said. \u201cThe sex it was the enhancement of that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Rhea spent the majority of her money on meth. She lost her job and moved in with Brian. At one point she was spending $100 a day feeding her habit. Their house no longer had electricity, heat or running water. Rhea knew her two kids Madelyn, now 19 and Kira, now 17, couldn\u2019t live in those conditions. <\/span><\/p>\n Madelyn remembers one Christmas she and her sister received toothpaste as presents. Rhea was short on money and could only afford the necessities.<\/span><\/p>\n She sent them to live with their father in Ohio. She had a gut feeling that something bad was going to happen and she was right.<\/span><\/p>\n Rock bottom<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Rhea was gone at the time of the fire. She found Brian passed out on the neighbor’s couch. He had Neosporin squeezed onto his burns with a sweatshirt tied and duct taped around his leg. He was hurt. It was bad. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBrian looked at me at the time and told me to leave and get away from him and I wouldn\u2019t do it. I refused,\u201d Rhea said. By now police were on the scene but the couple was hiding in an unfinished bedroom of the house next door.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe could hear them searching downstairs,\u201d Rhea said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t leave him because he was hurt. I just knew it was coming. There was just no getting out of this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Brian and Rhea peered out the window and saw a mass of police cars surrounding the two houses. It would be six hours before they are discovered.<\/span><\/p>\n He was taken to the hospital and she was taken to jail.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTalking to my daughters on the phone from jail was probably one of the most painful things I\u2019ve had to do,\u201d Rhea said. \u201cTo hear my daughters cry for me on the phone and to feel all that guilt and knowing what I did to myself and to my kids was when I knew I had to do something different.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Hearing the doors of the jail cell slam shut, Rhea realized she had a problem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When Brian was released from the hospital he was taken to jail and put in a seg unit\u2014a separate private cell away from the general population. He was on lockdown 24 hours a day. He was permitted no contact with the general population for fear of his injuries being infected. <\/span><\/p>\n Article continues after video.<\/em><\/p>\n\n
![\"meth-lab-investigation-yy-1\"](\"http:\/\/stigmaunmasked.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/meth-lab-investigation-yy-1.jpg\")
\u201cYou don\u2019t really think a lot about what\u2019s in a drug,\u201d Brian said. \u201cIt\u2019s more about the end result what am I going to get out of it.\u201d \u201cIt doesn\u2019t take a chemist to make meth. It really just takes an addict that needs to get high.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n