Oral history interview with Hope, 1980

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Name: Hope (Interviewee); Courtwright, David T., 1952- (Interviewer); Joseph, Herman, 1931- (Interviewer)
Title: Oral history interview with Hope, 1980
Other Titles: Reminiscences of Hope, 1980; Oral history of Hope, 1980
Abstract: In this interview, Hope discusses her life in New York, with special attention towards her drug use. She describes her introduction to opium use and her eventual transition to heroin. She describes how the increasing price of drugs served as an incentive for addicts to begin dealing drugs in lieu of their legitimate jobs, because they could no longer afford to maintain their drug use on their salar ies. She discusses the different groups which played key roles in the drug scene in New York in the early to mid 20th century including the Italian Mafia and Jewish crime syndicates. She compares her observations of addicts pre and post World War II. Hope also explains how many businesses in the Lower East Side such as bars, restaurants, and candy stores served as fronts for drug commerce in the early 20th century. She discusses the business aspects of the drug trade in great detail. She also describes aspects of drug enforcement, her own incarceration, and obtaining prescription drugs
Collection Name: Addicts Who Survived oral history collection
Subjects: Drug addicts--United States; Drug traffic--History--20th century.--United States; Drug control--History--20th century.--United States; Drug abuse--History--20th century.--United States; Opium abuse--History--20th century.--United States; Heroin abuse--History--20th century.--United States; Drugs--Prescribing; Mafia--United States; Jewish criminals--New York (State); Crime--New York (State); Organized crime--History--20th century.--United States; Hope
Format: oral histories
Genre: Interviews
Date: 1980

Physical Description: 120 pages
Note (Biographical): Hope was born on April 22, 1912 in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. She was one of six siblings born to Polish Jewish immigrants. Hope stopped attending school at fourteen years of age after having struggled with her education for many year s. She got a job working at a candy store, and began smoking opium with her neighborhood friends. She soon transitioned to taking raw opium orally, and became addicted. In 1928, at sixteen years of age, Hope used heroin for the first time, and in 1930, stopped using opium and began using heroin exclusively. In the early 1930s, Hope began selling heroin, and in 1941 she was arrested and served two years at Alderson Federal Prison Camp where she detoxed from drugs. After being released from jail she worked at the Parliament tobacco facility on Cherry Street in the East side of Manhattan, and as a telephone solicitor at a furniture store. In the late 1960s and early 1970s when the price of heroin skyrocketed, Hope began to purchase Dolophine and Dilaudid on the street. She was arrested in the early 1970s for redeeming forged prescriptions and served eighteen months at the Women's House of Detention. Hope joined a methadone program in 1974. Hope was interviewed for the project that led to the book Addicts Who Survived. The name is likely a pseudonym for the project
Note: Interviewed by David Courtwright and Herman Joseph on July 24, 1980 and January 22, 1981
Note (Provenance): David Courtwright, Herman Joseph, and Don Des Jarlais, Gift, 1988
Language: English
Library Location: Columbia Center for Oral History, Columbia University
Catalog Record: 11868500
Persistent URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.7916/d8-6q4f-6a04
Related URLs: Available digital content for this interview.