Beauty Queen Ends Up Jailed Addict
T E M P E, Ariz., Feb. 25 -- When Mistie Kline was crowned Miss Teen Arizona in 1994, the 15-year-old blond beauty used her speech to trumpet the importance of good, solid values.
"We need a world we can believe in and trust," Kline told the crowd. "A world we can love and will love us back. We need a world that is God-fearing and law-abiding."
Kline, who had also won previous beauty contests, spent her one-year reign as Miss Teen Arizona working with teenage drug addicts. But in the years that followed, her own world seldom matched the ideals she'd extolled at the pageant.
When her reign was over, Kline became convinced she was getting fat. The 16-year-old started taking "crystal meth" — methamphetamines — after a friend told her that the stimulant would help her lose weight.
Six years later, the decline that began with that initial drug use hit bottom. Police arrested Kline on felony drug and theft charges, and she landed in Phoenix's Durango Jail on a nine-month sentence that included serving on the world's only female chain gang.
Released from jail last week after completing her sentence, the 23-year-old Kline told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America she hopes her story will help teens say no to drugs, and also give pause to girls who fixate on their weight.
"For all these years I used drugs to stay skinny," Kline said. "If I would have know that I was going to wind up in jail, 45 pounds overweight, would I have used? No."
An Ugly Fear
For Kline the trouble really began even before she won the Miss Teen Arizona crown. Behind the bright eyes and big smile she flashed in the spotlight was a desperate fear that she would never be able to stay slim.
She received good grades and played sports in high school, but had always worried about her weight. Kline, who weighed 130 pounds and stood 5 feet 5 inches tall, had muscular legs because of athletics. She wasn't fat, but she thought she was.
Soon, Kline was nibbling on a chunk of crystal meth every day before high school to reduce her appetite. Eventually, she says, she could go three weeks without eating.
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