With ten years of hardcore drug addiction under my belt, and I mean “sleeping with a metal pipe between my legs on Skid Row” hardcore, I was disheartened by some of the radical policies that sprung up since I got sober in 2018. Wrong Speak Publishing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Jared, they don't want our help. When our county was putting together a committee for homelessness and drug addiction. I thought that this was right up my alley since I was a recovering addict who was homeless throughout most of my addiction. How wrong. They didn't want people who lived that life and escaped it they wanted people with titles, because people with titles brings in the money. So I walked out of the sham committee and went about doing the street ministry that helped me escape the abyss.
I’m in Denver, where our elected officials look wistfully at every CA and SF policy and can’t implement them fast enough. Not surprisingly, we’re seeing the exact same results. My own state house rep believes addict and enabling are “outdated terms” and our Harm Reduction center thinks its methods are “not the opposite of Recovery, it is just the more patient and sustainable route.” (To what? A slow suffering death?) All of our leadership at best ignores and at worst insists abstinence-based recovery doesn’t work. It’s a slap in the face.
If a book tour is part of your promotion plan, I hope you make a stop in Denver. I’m one of many local who follow you on X who would help spread the word and show up to hear you speak. Thank you for what you’re doing!
Thanks so much, Jen. I will definitely let you know if/when I come to Denver. Wonderful city but I've heard it's following the path of CA and SF with policies that clearly don't work. It's too bad, I was hoping other cities would learn from SF what not to do
I just ordered your book. Reading your essay, Shellenberger popped into my head. I clicked over to your book and saw he did the forward - so I know this is a good read. I live in the hellhole that is LA. The last time I went to a particular local grocery store, I came home and threw my clothes in the wash and myself in the shower. California has created a system to encourage drug use. In their official propaganda, they throw the working poor into the same pot as someone who is doing drugs; thus, one is guilted if we don't support their system. I believe that where 'need meets greed,' we are always going to get a dystopian nightmare because 'the greed' has no real interest in fixing the problem. The only problem to be fixed is how to increase the consumer base of the need. I had no idea that my vote to decriminalize drugs would lead to this insanity. I was told by three officers (all who were leaving LAPD) that voters took an important tool away from them in helping people get off drugs. I apologized to them for my stupidity.
That Prop lowered penalties for certain misdemeanors. It doesn’t decriminalize. And federal criminal law still applies. But in effect people are rarely arrested for mere possession in CA cities. That appears to be changing with the fentanyl laws now being passed at the state level. We shall see how they work in practice.
I live near Sunset Blvd. The other day I saw a naked man passed out near his tent. Five years ago, I would have called authorities understanding he was in distress. Now I don't even flinch. I know if I call the local council person and say compassionate societies don't encourage self harm, I will be deemed a narrow-minded white bigot. My dad was a psychiatric social worker and I believed in their work. Not anymore. Need met greed and birthed the current dystopia.
Everyone who was an addict or has someone in their family who was an addict will tell you this same story. It’s amazing to me how the “experts” don’t get it. “Harm reduction” increases and prolongs the harm, if the addict survives at all.
As for permanent supportive housing, how do we make that safe for the neighborhood? So far, little is done to enforce standards of community behavior around these buildings.
One of the issues with PSH is that funding for supportive services is rarely adequate, usually the wrong type, and by definition participation cannot be mandatory. So you take sick and suffering people who are not capable of taking care of themselves, much less being a good neighbor to their fellow tenants or the nearby community and concentrate them in an SRO or high rise.
There are no incentives to get sober. Some properties do an ok job with medication management for the severely mentally ill because we’re good at dispensing pills, but harm reduction ideology has a monopoly so sobriety and recovery aren’t part of the conversation.
Electeds have bought into the anti-police worldview, so security is a joke, and often residents are discouraged from calling the police. All accountability is stripped away. People respond to incentives. Why change if there are no consequences?
In SF they decided that PSH shouldn’t be relegated to the Tenderloin and built a big HomeRise 141-unit development in the relatively affluent neighborhood of Mission Bay. Needless to say, these neighbors were not very tolerant of public drug use, fights, and property damages occurring in their neighborhood and are demanding the City pay for private security.
Are you in touch with Michael Shellenberger? Your story is proof of his prescriptions in “San Fransicko,” which I thought was brilliant. I’m envisioning a City Arts and Lectures event featuring both of you —I’d go! Best of luck with the book!
BC legalized all drugs recently. Each person can have a personal supply of anything on hand. This is for harm reduction. Opioid OD deaths have skyrocketed. The socialist Premier of BC was recently asked about it and he said right wingers will not deter him from his ‘harm reduction’ program. The fawning media never mentioned IT ISN’T WORKING! They want these people dead. Not healthy.
As a kid (non-American and not in the US), I read Superman comics which spoke of an upside-down Bizarro world. It seems now, looking from outside, that’s what the US has become. Your story is very inspirational, and it’s a credit to you to share it this way including your forthcoming book. You highlighted the importance of community and learning a useful craft, which also seem to be things that are being destroyed today in the west (I could be wrong, but just saying that’s how it appears). Nonetheless, people like you give hope for renewal and rejuvenation. You also represent the BEST of your country.
Very good article. Reading all of the other comments that on this post makes me feel hopeful. It is so true that this system in CA and other states is so broken. I believe that this is intentional on so many levels. Thank you Jared and all others that are trying to help the addicts. I look forward to your book.
Jared, they don't want our help. When our county was putting together a committee for homelessness and drug addiction. I thought that this was right up my alley since I was a recovering addict who was homeless throughout most of my addiction. How wrong. They didn't want people who lived that life and escaped it they wanted people with titles, because people with titles brings in the money. So I walked out of the sham committee and went about doing the street ministry that helped me escape the abyss.
Thanks Jared. I’m looking forward to the book!
I’m in Denver, where our elected officials look wistfully at every CA and SF policy and can’t implement them fast enough. Not surprisingly, we’re seeing the exact same results. My own state house rep believes addict and enabling are “outdated terms” and our Harm Reduction center thinks its methods are “not the opposite of Recovery, it is just the more patient and sustainable route.” (To what? A slow suffering death?) All of our leadership at best ignores and at worst insists abstinence-based recovery doesn’t work. It’s a slap in the face.
If a book tour is part of your promotion plan, I hope you make a stop in Denver. I’m one of many local who follow you on X who would help spread the word and show up to hear you speak. Thank you for what you’re doing!
Thanks so much, Jen. I will definitely let you know if/when I come to Denver. Wonderful city but I've heard it's following the path of CA and SF with policies that clearly don't work. It's too bad, I was hoping other cities would learn from SF what not to do
Please do reach out if/when you come, either through Substack or X (@GenXJenDen).
I just ordered your book. Reading your essay, Shellenberger popped into my head. I clicked over to your book and saw he did the forward - so I know this is a good read. I live in the hellhole that is LA. The last time I went to a particular local grocery store, I came home and threw my clothes in the wash and myself in the shower. California has created a system to encourage drug use. In their official propaganda, they throw the working poor into the same pot as someone who is doing drugs; thus, one is guilted if we don't support their system. I believe that where 'need meets greed,' we are always going to get a dystopian nightmare because 'the greed' has no real interest in fixing the problem. The only problem to be fixed is how to increase the consumer base of the need. I had no idea that my vote to decriminalize drugs would lead to this insanity. I was told by three officers (all who were leaving LAPD) that voters took an important tool away from them in helping people get off drugs. I apologized to them for my stupidity.
We didn’t decriminalize drugs. Oregon did that and, after suffering the inevitable consequences, reversed course.
Prop 47.
That Prop lowered penalties for certain misdemeanors. It doesn’t decriminalize. And federal criminal law still applies. But in effect people are rarely arrested for mere possession in CA cities. That appears to be changing with the fentanyl laws now being passed at the state level. We shall see how they work in practice.
I live near Sunset Blvd. The other day I saw a naked man passed out near his tent. Five years ago, I would have called authorities understanding he was in distress. Now I don't even flinch. I know if I call the local council person and say compassionate societies don't encourage self harm, I will be deemed a narrow-minded white bigot. My dad was a psychiatric social worker and I believed in their work. Not anymore. Need met greed and birthed the current dystopia.
Everyone who was an addict or has someone in their family who was an addict will tell you this same story. It’s amazing to me how the “experts” don’t get it. “Harm reduction” increases and prolongs the harm, if the addict survives at all.
As for permanent supportive housing, how do we make that safe for the neighborhood? So far, little is done to enforce standards of community behavior around these buildings.
You are spot on.
One of the issues with PSH is that funding for supportive services is rarely adequate, usually the wrong type, and by definition participation cannot be mandatory. So you take sick and suffering people who are not capable of taking care of themselves, much less being a good neighbor to their fellow tenants or the nearby community and concentrate them in an SRO or high rise.
There are no incentives to get sober. Some properties do an ok job with medication management for the severely mentally ill because we’re good at dispensing pills, but harm reduction ideology has a monopoly so sobriety and recovery aren’t part of the conversation.
Electeds have bought into the anti-police worldview, so security is a joke, and often residents are discouraged from calling the police. All accountability is stripped away. People respond to incentives. Why change if there are no consequences?
In SF they decided that PSH shouldn’t be relegated to the Tenderloin and built a big HomeRise 141-unit development in the relatively affluent neighborhood of Mission Bay. Needless to say, these neighbors were not very tolerant of public drug use, fights, and property damages occurring in their neighborhood and are demanding the City pay for private security.
Are you in touch with Michael Shellenberger? Your story is proof of his prescriptions in “San Fransicko,” which I thought was brilliant. I’m envisioning a City Arts and Lectures event featuring both of you —I’d go! Best of luck with the book!
Yes! Michael's amazing. He actually wrote the foreword to my book that's coming out in June. We are close, and totally in alignment
BC legalized all drugs recently. Each person can have a personal supply of anything on hand. This is for harm reduction. Opioid OD deaths have skyrocketed. The socialist Premier of BC was recently asked about it and he said right wingers will not deter him from his ‘harm reduction’ program. The fawning media never mentioned IT ISN’T WORKING! They want these people dead. Not healthy.
Also, cartels have rushed in to BC.
Thought provoking and real. Can we listen?
As a kid (non-American and not in the US), I read Superman comics which spoke of an upside-down Bizarro world. It seems now, looking from outside, that’s what the US has become. Your story is very inspirational, and it’s a credit to you to share it this way including your forthcoming book. You highlighted the importance of community and learning a useful craft, which also seem to be things that are being destroyed today in the west (I could be wrong, but just saying that’s how it appears). Nonetheless, people like you give hope for renewal and rejuvenation. You also represent the BEST of your country.
Agreed. Beating an addiction is a tough thing to do. And weirdly, once you decide to, it is inevitable. Making the decision seems hard.
Very good article. Reading all of the other comments that on this post makes me feel hopeful. It is so true that this system in CA and other states is so broken. I believe that this is intentional on so many levels. Thank you Jared and all others that are trying to help the addicts. I look forward to your book.