Oral history interview with Stick, 1981

Biographical Note

Stick was born on December 17, 1922 in New York City. Though he was born in Hell's Kitchen, his family moved shortly after, and he lived nearly his entire life in East Harlem. He and his twin brother were the youngest of thirteen siblings. Stick's formal education ended when he quit high school in the ninth grade after his father passed away, but he later earned his high school equivalency while incarcerated. He was drafted into World War II in 1943. He had his first encounter with drugs when he was given morphine by a doctor after suffering a punctured lung. While enlisted, he also experimented with chewing opium. After being discharged, he got married, though he and his wife separated after seven months of marriage. When Stick was twenty-seven, he began working as a drug runner in the Lower East Side, delivering heroin. It was around this time that Stick began to use heroin as well. He estimates he was arrested roughly fifteen times between the age of twenty-seven and forty-seven and spent about fourteen years in jail during this period. In the early 1970s, after Stick's final stint in jail, he transitioned to methadone in order to quit using heroin, and experienced an increase in his cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. Stick 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

In this interview, Stick discusses his life in New York City, with special attention towards his drug use and trafficking. Stick describes his experience serving in the army during World War II, highlighting the racial conflicts that erupted between the segregated troops. He also describes how he first became involved with drugs through receiving morphine from a doctor after he was injured during the war. He comments on his various jobs, as well as difficulties he encountered securing employment after being incarcerated. He describes the conditions of various jails he spent time in. Facilities included: Rikers Island, Green Haven Correctional Facility, Eastern State Penitentiary, and State Correctional Institution in Graterford, Pennsylvania. He discusses how he began using heroin at twenty-seven years old, and his job transporting heroin on Manhattan's Lower East Side. He also mentions his decision to transition to methadone in the early 1970s in order to quit using heroin, and his resulting struggle with alcohol addiction. He compares his perception of addicts in the 1980s with his perception of addicts in his early years of drug use in the late 1940s

Subjects

• African American soldiers--History--20th century.
• Discrimination in the military--United States--History--20th century.
• Drug abuse--United States--History--20th century.
• Drug addicts--Rehabilitation--United States.
• Drug addicts--United States.
• Drug dealers--United States.
• Heroin abuse--United States--History--20th century.
• Imprisonment--United States.
• Interviews.
• Joseph, Herman, 1931- interviewer.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Stick--Interviews.

Access Conditions

Copyright by David Courtwright