Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Sarah, 1980Biographical NoteSarah was born on July 23, 1921 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. Her parents were Jewish-Polish immigrants. Sarah was the youngest of four siblings. Her father died when she was a child, and her mother died when she was fifteen years of age. Sarah received very little education because she often stayed home to aid her mother, who worked as a seamstress. As a result, Sarah never learned to read or write. At fifteen years old, her childhood friend and neighbor, Eleanor, introduced her to opium, morphine, cocaine, and heroin, to which Sarah became addicted. Eleanor also introduced Sarah to sex work. In her lifetime Sarah was arrested a total of thirty seven times and spent a cumulative ten years incarcerated. In the late 1950s, Sarah stopped engaging in sex work and began working as a madam, managing other sex workers. Sarah visited the New York Medical College Hospital to detox from drugs, and saw five different doctors for Dolophine prescriptions over the course of five years in the 1960s. In 1970, she joined a methadone program. Sarah was interviewed for the project that led to the book Addicts Who Survived. The name is likely a pseudonym for the project
Scope and ContentsIn this interview, Sarah discusses her life in New York City, focusing on her drug use. She explains how the premature deaths of her parents affected her as a teenager. She describes the physical abuse she faced at the hands of her older sister, and how it impacted her. She describes at length her relationship with a childhood friend and neighbor who introduced her to opium, morphine, cocaine, and heroin. She discusses how she began engaging in sex work to finance her drug addiction. She describes frequenting opium dens in Chinatown in the 1930s. Sarah details the drug panic during World War II, and how she was able to maintain a supply of drugs at the time. She reviews her arrest history, and estimates her total time spent incarcerated, mentioning her experience at the Women's House of Detention. She discusses transitioning out of sex work in the late 1950s, and starting to work as a madam. She compares the price of heroin across decades in the twentieth century. She delves into her experience detoxing at the New York Medical College Hospital, and her experience seeing private doctors for Dolophine prescriptions in the 1960s. Sarah discusses joining a methadone program in 1970 through her probation officer, and shares her opinion on the effectiveness of methadone maintenance
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by David Courtwright
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