In 2015, Jason Yamas was a 29-year-old multimedia producer working for a Grammy Award-winning artist. But by the following year, life as he knew it started to deteriorate.
In January 2016, he turned to meth when he couldn’t get his usual Adderall prescription. Within a year, he had spiraled into meth and GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) addiction, sabotaging his artistic career and becoming one of the top suppliers of illicit drugs to San Francisco’s largely gay “party and play” subculture.
“I quickly, stupidly became the talk of the town,” he said. “I was the largest crystal meth supplier within San Francisco’s queer community.”
He operated in pounds of meth and gallons of GHB at a time, which he referred to as “liquid gold” because of how valuable it was. At his peak, Yamas said, he was bringing in $15,000 to $20,000 in profit per week, selling 15 pounds of meth and four gallons of GHB.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
The “party and play” or “chemsex” subculture — which revolves around meth, GHB and sex — has carved a deep trail of addiction into LGBTQ communities around the world, as NBC News has previously reported.
Read the full story at NBCNews.com
