Jared Klickstein

Author, journalist, former addict.

Born to heroin-addicted parents in 1989, Jared’s life was defined by struggle. Developing a habit of his own in college, he dropped out and, for 10 years, he battled addiction and homelessness on Skid Row. In 2018, he achieved sobriety and transformed into a force for change, using his writing and advocacy to highlight the human side of addiction and homelessness, and to push for more effective treatments and policies. Last year, he published his memoir: Crooked Smile.

Why did we invite him on?

As Konstantin states at the top of the conversation, Jared has “maybe the craziest life story of anyone we’ve had on the show.” And that was before we knew all the details. We wanted to share Jared’s story with you, but also what it taught him. About the world, addiction, the role of government, and how society can better help addicts.

What did we talk about?

With a life like Jared’s, the only place to start is the beginning. We go all the way back to his early childhood, a time when he was raised by two people helplessly addicted to one of the most corrosive drugs there is: heroin. From a young age, he developed coping strategies, and now a few decades detached, he can see it for what it was - a deeply unusual upbringing.

”Some of it was fun. My parents would act erratic. Sometimes they’d wake me up at 2 in the morning to get pancakes. But there was also other times. There were guns in the house. There was paranoia. Waking me up and giving me a gun and telling me to cover them because the CIA was outside. Of course, that wasn’t really happening. But that was my version of ‘catch’.”

But like everything connected to heroin, it couldn’t last. As Jared grew, he became increasingly aware of how ‘unorthodox’ his life was, even if he didn’t know why. Eventually, he confided in close family, and everything changed.

“When I was 12, I told on my parents. I didn’t know what drugs were, but when I found some needles, I realised it was hard drugs. So I was adopted, and suddenly I had a very normal childhood.”

In the six years between 12 and 18, Jared adjusted to normalcy to such an extent that he was able to attend college. However, this proved to be the climax of his own downward spiral. In an art dorm at the University of Santa Cruz - “loser factory” - he was exposed to heroin again, this time in the smoke peeling off the lips of his classmates. Despite his history, he joined it.

”I got wildly addicted immediately. It was the greatest feeling I’d ever felt. I was ashamed of who I was - I saw myself as a ‘crack baby’ … Oxycontin fixed that. Alcohol fixed that, but that gave me hangovers. I did some Googling and learned that Oxycontin was basically heroin, which is cheaper, so I thought: ‘I might as well do that.’”

Some of his peers were able to keep it under control. Not Jared - before long, he was walking on behalf of the dealers, driving deliveries of the illicit substance around campus. Here, he encountered another drug he would find himself in the merciless grip of. This time, however, it wasn’t his own temptation - it was the bizarre quirk of his new part-time job.

”A requirement of this job was that all the drivers had to smoke meth before making deliveries. Which is pretty smart; heroin addicts fall asleep and crash cars. I got pretty addicted, and immediately dropped out of college. My family didn’t want to talk to me, and they let me go. Within a matter of months, I was homeless on Skid Row.”

Meth, Jared explains, is not like other drugs. Heroin ruins lives, but its users aren’t typically dangerous in the moment of ecstasy. On the other hand…