Oral history interview with Charley Lee, 1980

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Name: Lee, Charley (Interviewee); Joseph, Herman, 1931- (Interviewer)
Title: Oral history interview with Charley Lee, 1980
Other Titles: Reminiscences of Charley Lee, 1980; Oral history of Charley Lee, 1980
Abstract: Charley Lee starts the interview reflecting on early life in China during the early 1900s. Lee explains that due to financial need he immigrated the United States with his father and brother. He describes their work in San Francisco and sending money to his mother in China. Lee describes his introduction to opium in the 1930s and his usage habits. He discusses switching to heroin in 1944 due to opi um shortages, and he describes purchasing and using heroin. In 1949, Charley moved to New York City, and he describes purchasing and using heroin there. He was working at a laundromat in New York, and he details his work and economic situation there. Lee briefly notes a visit to Lexington, KY addiction recovery hospital. Lee concludes discussing his methadone maintenance regimen and his life at the time of the interview
Collection Name: Addicts Who Survived oral history collection
Subjects: Drug addicts--United States; Opium abuse--History--20th century.--United States; Heroin abuse--History--20th century.--United States; Drug traffic--History--20th century.--United States; Methadone maintenance--History--20th century.--United States; Laundry workers; Chinese American newspapers; Chinese Americans; Lee, Charley; Narcotic Farm
Format: oral histories
Genre: Interviews
Date: 1980

Physical Description: 86 pages
Note (Biographical): Charley Lee was born December 8, 1911 to a small family in Guangdong, China. He attended school for around eight years. In 1929, Lee, his brother, and his father left for the United States and settled in San Francisco. Lee began working for a Chinese newspaper as a typesetter, and he and his father sent money back to his mother. His father returned to China, and Lee had started smoking opium by the age of twenty-five. In 1944, Charley Lee switched to heroin due to the scarcity and rising cost of opium. He moved to New York City in 1949 and started working at a laundry business. In 1972, Lee started methadone. Charley Lee was interviewed for the project that led to the book Addicts Who Survived
Note: Interviewed by Herman Joseph on November 5, 1980
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: 11868472
Persistent URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.7916/d8-y058-jg95
Related URLs: Available digital content for this interview.