Jared Klickstein
Writer, journalist and ex addict
Jared Klickstein was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1989 to heroin-addicted parents. He spent his teenage years outside of Oakland, California after being adopted by his aunt and uncle. He attended UC Santa Cruz where he got addicted to heroin himself, dropped out, and spent nearly ten years chronically homeless and addicted around the country. After a notorious run on Skid Row in Los Angeles and a subsequent jail sentence, he sobered up in 2018, wrote this book, and currently resides in Oakland, California. He works as an independent journalist.
Tomorrow he is coming on Triggernometry to discuss his story and constructive ways of improving the addiction epidemic across America. In is book, he describes the ways in which local governments often facilitate drug use rather than help addicts get off the drugs their addicted to.
Comment your questions for Francis and Konstantin below.
Can drug addicts elect to have their liberties taken away in order to get them off the habit? Would it help if they were able to do this?
If drugs were legalised – re-legalised even – that would immediately take the criminal element out of it; make drugs cheaper; make drugs safer and make lower-dose drug-taking e.g. opium smoking more likely. What do you think?