crown CU Home > Libraries Home
Columbia Center for Oral History Portal >

Oral history interview with Tony A., 1980

Creator: A., Tony
Project: Addicts Who Survived oral history collection.
(see all project interviews)
Phys. Desc. :transcript: 54 pages sound file : digital preservation master, WAV files (96 kHz, 24 bit)
Location: Columbia Center for Oral History
Full CLIO record >>

Biographical Note

Tony A. was born in Tampa, Florida in 1908 to a Cuban father and an Italian mother. He left school as a teenager, taking jobs to help support his family at a dry cleaner and a bakery, before moving to New York City in 1926. He and his wife married in 1929 and had two sons. While working in a cigarette factory, he began smoking marijuana and then snorting heroin in 1932. His first prison sentence of six months for stealing began in 1936, and was followed by stretches of two years (1939-1941) and eighteen months (1947-1948) for drug dealing. A third dealing conviction landed him in Leavenworth Penitentiary from 1951-1958 and, after a parole violation, 1959-1963. He remained addicted to heroin for most of his adult life until beginning a methadone program in 1971. Tony A. was interviewed for the project that led to the book Addicts Who Survived. The name is likely a pseudonym for the project

Scope and Contents

This interview explores the life and heroin addiction of Tony A. His narrative focuses on his history of employment, drug use and sales, conflicts with the law, and processes of withdrawal and recovery. The interviewers ask about his experiences with drug use, detoxification, and recovery programs over the course of approximately fifteen years of incarceration spent in Rikers Island, the Tombs (Manhattan House of Detention), Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, and Lexington Federal Medical Center. Other topics include dosages and motivations for use, use of PG (panegoric, an opium tincture) as a heroin substitute, variations in price and availability of heroin, the impact of his drug use on his wife and family, and practices around cleaning and sharing needles

Subjects

Access Conditions

Copyright by David Courtwright

Using this collection

Columbia Center for Oral History

Address:
Columbia University
535 West 114th Street
801 Butler Library, Box 20
MC1129
New York, NY 10027
Telephone:
(212) 854-7083

Email:
oralhist
@libraries.cul.columbia.edu

Website:
Columbia Center for Oral History