Homeless man talks openly about being addicted to heroin. We have an opioid crisis in America.

Keith, yeah, you're here in Hollywood, a

homeless

person, tell me about it, well let's see, there's not much to tell, honestly, I could probably get off the streets if I tried a little harder and applied myself, it's really not that dangerous. like everyone says. Since you stay alone and don't hang out with other

homeless

people, you're usually pretty okay. My problem is that I'm

addicted

to

heroin

, so that's basically the reason I can't get off the streets. I ended up losing my job in the real estate industry when the market went down and I was

addicted

to painkillers and when the painkillers became too expensive I switched to

heroin

and it all went downhill from there I lost the apartment there, girl, the dog and I ended up on the street, which I basically said everything is up in the air, so if anyone ever asks what it's like to shoot heroin, it's probably the only thing that will make a man give up money, job, family, because he, already you know, he takes his life, boy, yeah, he does, I mean, basically, the only one that I I mean he has two sides, it sucks because he takes your life, but at the same time he's taking it from you by his nature, like If you were scheduled for a narcotic and since you know you can't get it, your only options are to go and take methadone, do you

have

methadone? maintenance no, I'm not going to use methadone, maintenance is actually a lot.

I mean, it's legal, but it's a lot more evil than heroin because heroin, if you kick it, is like an eight-day kick. methadone, it's about a month and a half since you threw up and shot up, so I tried to kick, yeah, I've tried a couple of times, it's just not ready yet, well, yeah, I mean hey, I still like it too much and still Do you know I can still get it every day, so I still like it a lot? That's part of the reason I won't kick and secondly, yes, you try to kick in the street and once you get to a point.

In the illness that you've been in for two or three days, you know it's basically a phone call to feel good again, you know? I could not. I

have

been sober for 16 years. I was here 16 years ago. I couldn't I couldn't oh my god there's no way if I got high in a park I'd be vulnerable, you know what I mean? your future like what are you doing well you're a smart guy yeah I mean uh I just realized there's basically no way for this iron and pass I mean I basically realize there's no future until I'm actually sober so basically I like the way Mira, it's like my life is on pause right now, it's like I'm 35 and I know when I want to quit, so every time I want to say, I can get everything back.

He knows, I just really have to quit and do it. but I'm just not ready to do it yet, so I'm not going to kid myself and say oh yeah, you know I'm here looking for a job or I'm trying to do this or that because I'm not you know, it's like no, I don't really care. sleeping on the street, I don't mind at all, I have a place down here that I stay near Fairfax and it's quiet, no one bothers me. I sleep very well every night. hours a night yawning Wow, I go to sleep around 10 at night and wake up around 8:00 in the morning, you know what you're amazing too, don't you know?

It's like I do my thing. I know. I haven't slept well since I got sober, now that's part of the reason I'm not ready to quit yet, you know what I mean, it's because I know what it's going to be like, it's going to be hell, you know, but yeah , I know, I know I can do it, I just know that right now there is no way I can do it because I don't want to do it right. You know, yeah, it's your choice exactly, so you know, I don't know, man. I guess the way I look at it, put it in perspective, it's like I'm not one of those people that thinks everyone owes them something or I complain about it because you know I still eat better and live better than probably 95 % of the world's population, so it's like you know I haven't hit rock bottom here, so you know, when I feel like I've hit rock bottom or I just can't go any further, I start to lose my mind.

So maybe I'll let your socks hit rock bottom, yeah, another minute 81, but if you had three wishes, what would they be? I probably wish I could take some kind of pill that would make me never remember what opiates feel like. and then let's see, the second wish would probably be to get my dog ​​back and a third wish would probably be to get my cat back. Yes, that's what I would like, but thank you very much for talking about the problem. Thank you. Take it. easy you