Lori Arnold Exposes Her Life as a Drug-Dealing Queenpin in the Exclusive discovery+ Docuseries “Queen of Meth”

Shining a bright crystal blue light on the life and crimes of Lori Arnold, Queen of Meth takes viewers on a deeply personal journey unveiling how one of America’s most infamous – and unexpected – drug lords turned addiction into an enterprise. The former drug maven takes viewers back to the scene of the crime in her hometown of Ottumwa, Iowa where for six years, she ran a sprawling multi-state meth empire and played a key role in the start of the Midwest’s methamphetamine epidemic. A major dealer, user, and even supplier, money poured in and good times rolled for Lori and those close to her, while their lifestyles helped revitalize the economically depressed factory town. At the height of Lori’s reign, she was producing between 10-20 pounds of meth in her lab and raking in at least $200,000 each week… until the darker side of addiction and dealing caught up with her.

In Queen of Meth, Lori confronts her past by visiting old haunts and rehashing memories with friends and family, including her famous brother, Tom Arnold. Lori and Tom’s vivid recollections of their formative years reveal hidden family secrets and trauma, poignantly piecing together how Lori’s disturbing childhood and wild adolescence led her down a drug-riddled path. More than a trip down memory lane, Queen of Meth showcases just how this highly successful and unlikely entrepreneur oversaw a multi-million-dollar meth empire, and how even within the ravages of addiction, she was able to flip poverty to prosperity. As she reconnects with friends from her hometown and her estranged son, Josh, she is faced with the repercussions of her actions and the destruction left in her wake, which continues to have devastating consequences in the community and beyond.

Now, in an intimate and exclusive moment of reckoning, Lori reflects on how the highs of drugs, money, and power had a grip on her and the hubris she had until the feds closed in on her. Grappling with a broken world she helped create and the stream of relationships shattered from her time at the top, the explosive three-hour docuseries Queen of Meth begins streaming on discovery+ on Friday, May 7.

“Queen of Meth displays the pervasiveness of drugs throughout a rural community, but at its heart is a deeply personal journey of self-discovery for the dealer responsible for it all, Lori Arnold,” said Lisa Holme, Group SVP, Content & Commercial Strategy for discovery+. “This epic tale tracks the meteoric rise and inevitable fall one of the U.S.’s most prolific drug traffickers and the devastating impact it ultimately had.”

“We set out to tell the unexpected story of the ‘queenpin’ behind the 1980s Midwest meth explosion, but what we uncovered were hidden family secrets with a lineage of abuse and addiction, and exposed how one naïve entrepreneur is out from behind prison walls but will forever serve a life sentence for selling drugs,” says Julian P. Hobbs, Director, and Producer of Queen of Meth.

Queen of Meth is available exclusively on discovery+, the definitive non-fiction, real-life subscription streaming service now available from Discovery Communications. You can follow discovery+ on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Queen of Meth is produced by for discovery+ by Talos Films with Julian P. Hobbs as director and producer and Elli Hakami as executive producer. Liz Massie is senior executive producer for discovery+.