Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Charley Lee, 1980Biographical NoteCharley 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
Scope and ContentsCharley 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 opium 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
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by David Courtwright
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