Use Meth?
...was what the poster at the bus stop said, but at first I couldn't see the question mark and thought it was an imperative. Backlash against the huge anti-crystal meth campaign in the Castro, I thought? No, just a part of it -- an advertisement for a study of medications that could help people get off the stuff. There were two guys at the bus stop with me and the one to my left, my age or a little younger, was very twitchy, and with the poster and all, I thought maybe he was on meth. I think meth addicts are supposed to be all twitchy. But he also might have just been cold or over-caffeinated. He was jiggling his legs and writing text messages with amazing rapidity. Then another young man came along wearing a black polo shirt tucked into black pants. He was short and looked like a college theater geek. He also looked like he'd been crying, or was trying not to cry. He reached into his pocket, and for a second I thought maybe he looked so upset because he was about to pull out a gun and rob me because he was also a meth addict and needed money to support his habit. Instead, he just walked past us to stand under the MUNI sign and sigh.