Tweakers on the bay

These days us Brits have all heard of meth, we’ve all seen Theroux deadpan his way across the crystal warfield of Fresco California hanging with a new breed of crack head – and thought, ‘mmm… meth, better give that one a miss’. However during a recent cultural safari to San Francisco, I stumbled first hand upon the meth-related social phenomena of the west coast ‘tweaker’, a genre of urban human disaster previously undetected by my London raised radar.

Visiting San Fran for sure you lap up the vibrant liberal culture; rainbow houses, organic clam chowder and wet dream worthy independent record stores, however, you just can’t help but notice the massive pandemic of cracked out rejects that seem to decorate most corners of the city. From Jesus freaks in McDonalds, to men asleep under cars, to old ladies selling yin-yan shaped shells on dog hair necklaces, San Fran seems to be home to an extraordinary number of total fucking nutters.

When questioning my local guides about this abundant population, I’m repetitively told these peeps are the ‘tweakers’ of San Fran and Oakland. ‘Tweaker’ from what I can tell is a loose phrase, one often coined for cracked out victims of meth abuse; (check out the gay group at www.tweakers.org who’ve actually seized the label with pride) although in everyday lexicon it can be used to describe a whole range of wierdy types; cracked out, twitching, muttering and tweaking off in public.

From my short time in the city… here are a few of my favourite tweakers. There were many more but I have more common sense / self-preservation then to go sticking my camera in the face of a highly-strung nut job whilst on holiday.

1. Left-behind hippie tweaker

Commonly found amongst the residue of the free love era on Haight Street or the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park. Sporting / trolley / musical instrument / dreadlock look…

2. Entrepreneurial tweaker

This dude sells ganja snacks in Dolores Park (San Frans’ version of London Fields). Note the skull stick / crocs combo, skunk dealer meets Martha Stewart. I’ve heard his cookies are awesome.

3. Baby Spice tweaker

I met this young lady outside Macy’s downtown. She wanted me to buy her artwork that came free with a gram of coke. The small dog dressed in pink was tweaking out too – don’t blame it.