‘Tweakerworld’ is a harrowing tale about a gay man’s downward spiral with meth and PnP

A new memoir out today recalls one gay man’s experiences as a crystal meth and GHB addict. He says he’s sharing his story to help others. He also wants to shatter the idea that there’s anything playful around so-called “party and play drugs”.

Tweakerworld is by 37-year-old Jason Yamas. Raised in a supportive, middle-class family in Eastern Pennsylvania, by the end of his 20s, he had a promising career as a multimedia producer. 

In January 2016, at the age of 29, he was living in San Francisco and working with a Grammy-winning artist. He tried crystal meth when he was unable to get his usual Adderall prescription. 

It proved a rapid downward spiral to drug addiction and dealing.

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Within weeks, Yamas was regularly taking meth and GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate). Both drugs pose a particular problem on the gay scene. Several surveys estimate LGBTQ+ people are twice as likely to have substance abuse issues than straight people. 

For gay men, this can be linked to experiencing homophobia and discrimination or mental health challenges. Others are chasing intense sexual experiences in a search for connection with others or as a way to escape the pressures of life. 

Mexican drug cartel

Yamas began dealing and was soon making serious money. He started ferrying meth for a Mexican drug cartel and had around eight people working for him. At his peak, he says he was making $15,000 to $20,000 in profit each week, selling 15 pounds of meth and four gallons of GHB.

GHB is notoriously easy to overdose on. Users measure out the drug in drops, and it can be easy to misjudge how much one has taken. It’s common for users to pass out, which leaves them vulnerable to rape or sexual assault at chemsex gatherings. 

They can also lose control of their bowels while unconscious.

Users can quickly develop a tolerance for the drug. This leads to them taking more or mixing it with other drugs to achieve the same sort of high. Too much GHB can also lead to coma or death. 

A major study of GHB use in the UK in 2019 offered some depressing results. Around 2,700 of the 5,000 GHB users quizzed were gay or bi men. Of these, 28 percent said they had been sexually assaulted while on the drug. Almost one in five reported being given a deliberate overdose.

In an interview with NBC, Yamas said he wanted to use his memoir to detail the unflinching reality of being a meth and GHB addict, and what goes on at party’n’play get-togethers.

“You get to that hookup from Grindr, and all of a sudden it’s being treated in a sexy way. … It doesn’t look as intimidating,” Yamas said. “The first step to prevention is pulling the curtain back.”

Yamas turned to driving cars for a ride-sharing app. However, his GHB use led to multiple crashes. He was eventually fired. 

Rehab and turning his back on crystal meth and GHB

Although Yamas says his dealing was earning him big money, he found himself facing increasingly scary situations. Someone pulled a gun on him. He began to experience drug-induced paranoia and psychosis and became convinced he was being watched and monitored. 

His family staged an intervention in February 2017. Yamas initially resisted the offer of help, but a few weeks later, entered rehab. 

He says he has not used meth or GHB since leaving rehab six years ago. He left San Francisco and relocated to Philadelphia to be near family. Yamas is now based in Los Angeles and exploring his dream of being an actor and TV writer. He says that writing the memoir was part of his cathartic healing. 

Despite now revealing his drug-dealing past, he has never been charged with any crimes. He thinks—and hopes—it’s unlikely that will happen, given the time that’s elapsed. 

He says he feels a responsibility to speak out to help his community.

“Person after person who I knew whose lives were destroyed in various ways, from being disconnected from their family to contracting untreatable syphilis that had caused them to go blind,” he said, “all stemmed because the first time they went to a hookup where they saw the word ‘party’ somebody introduced crystal meth to them.” 

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Increase in meth-related overdose deaths

Despite a rise in awareness, it’s no secret that drug use in the US is on the increase. Although opioids may dominate the headlines, meth is also a major problem. In San Francisco, there was a 500% increase in meth-related deaths between 2008 and 2018. There was a similar upswing in meth-related arrests, up from 1 in 20 drug-related arrests in 2008 to 1 in five in 2018. 

The COVID-19 pandemic did not help matters. It impacted the mental health of many and some turned to drugs. 

For example, in Los Angeles, meth overdose deaths increased by 77% from March to December 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

In Oakland, California, meth-related deaths increased by 250% between 2017 and 2021. 

Part of this increase in death is due to cheaper supplies of crystal meth flooding the market. It’s also down to the fact that meth is now often laced with Fentanyl. 

Queerty has covered numerous meth-related horror stories. For example, in 2019, a Broadway dancer, David Bellamy, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for strangling his boyfriend to death during a crystal meth binge. That same year, the death of KTLA news anchor Chris Burrous was determined to be meth-related. He’d met a regular Grindr hookup for sex but passed out. Besides the best efforts of his friend to revive him, Burrous died later at hospital. 

As Yamas points out in his book, meth does not discriminate. The damage its wreaks is not confined to the gaunt, scab-covered individuals so commonly associated with the drug. In fact, the one message that comes across loud and clear from Tweakerworld is this: It’s all-too-easy for queer men to become hooked once they start to dabble. 

Related:

Married news anchor’s death deemed meth overdose after Grindr hookup gone wrong

Meth does not belong in a human body, and certainly not inserted anally.

This new study about GHB use among gay and bi men is truly terrifying

“It’s like a roulette wheel of death,” one person said. “We need to get the message out how dangerous this stuff is.”

YouTube comic Michael Henry takes on GHB use among gay men

Behind the humor, important information.