Professional Drug Addict: A Memoir of the Silicon Valley Exec Turned Seattle Homeless Criminal You Know

"My final mugshot is on the book cover. Now, no one can use it to shame me. I own it.", Arnel Castro Leyva

What happens when a tech executive trades corporate meetings for meth-fueled street survival?

Arnel Castro Leyva built a globe-trotting career working for Microsoft, T-Mobile, Adobe, Yahoo, and a handful of startups. But his life was perpetually on the verge of ruin because his real job was a professional drug addict.

In the shadows of the Pacific Northwest, Arnel loses everything, and his double life collapses into a midlife crisis of pandemic proportions. He descends into the lawless streets of the COVID lockdown and enters The Life: drug dealing, financial scams, grand theft auto, living with prostitutes, and organized retail theft. Along the way, he meets a cast of kindred spirits, narcissistic, codependent people-pleasers hell bent on exploiting the system, each other, and themselves.

With prison looming, Arnel is given a chance at redemption through a strict yet therapeutic criminal justice program. He finds the startup idea of his life-helping other formerly incarcerated people with substance use disorders to create a life worth living-and realizes he was on the path to answer his calling all along.

A brutally honest memoir, equal parts Leaving Las Vegas, Trainspotting, Breakfast at Sally's, and Breaking Bad, ultimately redeemed by a Brené Brown / Gabor Maté / 12-Step moral to the story.