It's easy to get jaded in SF because there are so many panhandlers. There's also different classes of panhandlers... There's gutter punks, scam artists, drug ad

It's easy to get jaded in SF because there are so many panhandlers. There's also different classes of panhandlers... There's gutter punks, scam artists, drug addicts, mentally ill, and dudes who are just down and out. There was a guy by my house who I felt bad for because he was mentally retarded... until I ran into him at the pizza place and realized it was all an act. There are guys who would ask for weirdly specific amounts of money, like $8.75 or 13 dollars. There are guys who have nicer shoes than me. The gutter punks are aggressive and generally assholes. There was a 20-something girl with a shaved head who offered to give me a blow job for $5... at 7 in the morning. Anyway, I get what the OP is saying but none of these people besides the gutter punks would be into smokes. It's sort of stupid to buy smokes for homeless people if you don't smoke. Even beyond the homeless, SF is lurker central. Smoking in SF means that everyone on the street will ask you for a cigarette, from homeless people, to drunk yuppies whose wife won't let them buy cigs, to teenage girls up for the weekend from Stockton. In summary... having cigarettes will actually ensure that you have about 5x as many encounters with people on the street than you normally would. Really the only way to deal with the panhandlers (and everyone else in SF) is to learn how to say "no." If you want to feel better about yourself volunteer at a shelter or soup kitchen.