Oral history interview with Frances Smith, 1980

Biographical Note

Frances Smith was born in 1900 in Cleveland, Ohio. She was the second born of seven siblings. She attended school through the ninth grade before dropping out. At eighteen years of age, she got married and had a son. Her son died of pneumonia at eighteen months old, and six months later, her husband passed. At nineteen years of age, she was approached by a pimp posing as a businessman, and accompanied him to New York City where she became a sex worker. Soon after she began to experiment with opium and heroin. Smith was arrested once on drug-related charges when she was around twenty years old, and was incarcerated in the Women's House of Detention for one year. In 1935, Smith visited a sanitarium in Stamford, Connecticut to detox from heroin. After detoxing, she remained drug-free for five years, before returning to heroin. She continued to use heroin until the 1960s when she lost her connection, and began purchasing methadone from street dealers. In the 1970s, she joined a methadone program. Frances Smith was interviewed for the project that led to the book Addicts Who Survived

Scope and Contents

In this interview, Frances Smith discusses her life in New York City, focusing on her drug use. She recalls the death of her child and husband when she was around eighteen years old. She describes being persuaded to move to New York City from her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio at nineteen years of age by a pimp posing as an entrepreneur. She discusses becoming a sex worker in New York City and being introduced to opium and heroin by other sex workers. She explains how one of the women in her workplace got her addicted to heroin, and charged her double the going price for the drug, in order to make a profit and maintain her own habit. She recalls being incarcerated in the Women's House of Detention for a year at twenty years of age. She discusses how she was able to keep her heroin use a secret from her friends and family throughout the years. Smith describes visiting a sanitarium in Stamford, Connecticut in 1935 to detox from heroin, and explains how she remained drug-free in the five years following that treatment, but resorted to drinking heavily during that time period. She discusses how she acquired heroin through private connections, one of which she maintained for twenty-two years. She recalls beginning to purchase methadone from street dealers in the 1960s after losing contact with her heroin connection. Smith describes joining a methadone program in Greenwich Village in the 1970s, and temporarily being moved to the Gold Star Mother ferry for methadone maintenance due to patient overflow. She discusses how methadone has helped her arthritis by reducing pain and inflammation, and increasing her mobility

Subjects

• Courtwright, David T., 1952- interviewer.
• Drug abuse--United States--History--20th century.
• Drug addicts--United States.
• Heroin abuse--United States--History--20th century.
• Imprisonment--United States.
• Interviews.
• Joseph, Herman, 1931- interviewer.
• Methadone maintenance--United States--History--20th century.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Prostitution--United States--History--20th century.
• Smith, Frances--Interviews.

Access Conditions

Copyright by David Courtwright