Gangster (or gangsta) can mean cool, hip, tough, unyielding, committed, brave, or any number of other praiseworthy qualities. According to many people who know whereof they speak, the coolest, hippest, toughest, most unyielding, committed and brave thing a person can do is achieve and maintain sobriety.

Sober Gangster is a Boise, Idaho, organization that sells clothing and accessories to finance the existence of two pieces of real estate. These are a 12-bed residence with an onsite house manager, and a six-bed residence for those who are further along in recovery, “individuals steady in sobriety who still value support and connection.”

Why? Because “not one more person needs to lose a family member or friend to addiction.” Another of the group’s sayings is, “Anyone can live a Sober life. Living out loud about recovery gives hope to others who are struggling in their addiction or abuse.” Founder Jason Williams says,

We provide a movement, a community, and a way out. Our mission is to offer safe, structured, and supportive homes where individuals can rebuild their lives, discover their worth, and embrace the gangster freedom that comes from living clean.

At some point, a fortunate addict (one who is paying attention) realizes that they are actually a slave to their substance of choice. Somehow it dawns on them that they might as well be in chains, ruled by an overseer with a whip and a shotgun. The opposite of slavery is freedom, and getting off dope is about building an “unwavering commitment to freedom” and becoming one of the people who proudly proclaim, “The most gangster thing I ever did was get sober.”

As an adolescent, Jason Williams did his best to achieve the status of a fatality statistic, but after several years of being a hardcore junkie, he discovered true freedom and quit all mind-altering chemicals. That was almost 30 years ago, and recently he wrote,

Freedom takes work, willingness, and honesty. There is a life waiting for you that is beyond anything you could have ever dreamed of.

I live free and will never live in the desperation of addiction again. Nothing is more Gangster than that.

One might assume that the boy had a rough childhood, but that was far from true. As Williams told podcast host Brittney McWethy, he was raised in a loving, caring home, with no drug use, physical abuse, or psychological trauma. But he was bullied a lot at school, and longed for acceptance from his peers.

When the family relocated to Las Vegas, this changed, but not for the better. In the new environment, as a high-school freshman, he was accepted for the wrong reasons, by the worst crowd. In the first month of school, he got drunk for the first time, and it rocked his world.

As he later told his YouTube audience,

The second alcohol touched my lips something happened, a shift happened. I instantly felt funny. I instantly felt handsome, I felt strong. Everybody liked me. I was the life of the party.

Soon, the friends decided to up their game from booze to methamphetamine. Williams recalls,

Once I discovered drugs, the drinking kind of took a back seat. I wanted to put as many drugs into my body as I can as often as I can, without regard to what the results would be, so it didn’t matter if it was meth mushrooms acid like I would do it all at the same time. You could just hand me a pill and I would take it.

Speed made things much worse. It is reputed to be a very, very tough addiction to escape — not that any of the lads wanted to escape it. Also, it was expensive. As the previously-shunned youth learned, buying the drugs is an instant key to popularity.

To finance his generosity, he became an accomplished thief. He hung out with tough guys and enjoyed the gangster life. Of course, serious gangsters know better than to get high on their own supply, or anyone else’s. This is how the professionals are distinguished from the amateurs.

In this new environment violence, much of it self-inflicted, became a familiar condition of life. Williams apparently was particularly oblivious and clumsy — getting hurt, causing damage, vomiting at school. If four boys ran from a cop, he would be the one caught. If a rake was lying on the ground, he was the one who would step on it. All he could do was cause wreckage.

As he later told McWethy, he did not have an “off switch” accessible to either himself or anyone else. Certainly his mom and dad couldn’t make him behave. Nor could they protect him — not that he wanted protection. “The only thing I cared about was how to get loaded.” From ages 14 to 19 he was a mess.

(To be continued…)

(For people who want to get seriously involved, there is a private Facebook group.)

Written by Pat Hartman. First published April 18, 2025.

Sources:

“About us,” SoberGangster.com, undated.

“About SG Living,” SoberGangster.com, undated.

“Episode 33: Jason Williams aka Sober Gangster,” YouTube.com, 2023.

“Episode 1: The Sober Gangster,” YouTube, undated.

“EP 15 — Sober Gangster: Jason Williams’ Triumph Over Addiction,” The Begin Again Podcast, undated.

Image Copyright: Sober Gangster.