Editor’s Note: Next week, we begin a new series marking the release of the first paperback edition of Addicts Who Survived: An Oral History of Narcotic Use in America, 1923-1965. First published in 1989 by the University of Tennessee Press, Addicts Who Survived was based upon a series of oral history interviews of older methadone patients in New York City. There interviews were collected starting in 1980, by David Courtwright, Herman Joseph, and Don Des Jarlais. Both Joseph and Des Jarlais were themselves subjects of a more recent oral history project, History of a Public Science: Substance Abuse Research, conducted by myself and Nancy Campbell. You can read Don Des Jarlais’ interview, and Herman Joseph’s interview, to get some additional perspective from both scholars on Addicts Who Survived.
Starting Monday, we’ll present a series of excerpts from the book, paired with a 
scholarly reflection on the excerpt. We’re pleased to have four notable scholars of drugs and addiction contributing to the series, starting with Eric Schneider. Monday, we’ll run an excerpt from “Teddy”–whose involvement with “dope” began in Harlem during World War Two. Tuesday, we’ll publish Eric’s reflection on Teddy’s history. And so on…
I’m particularly pleased to have organized this series, because of how much Addicts Who Survived has meant to me since I first read it (not long after the initial publication). I can still remember working on the early history of cocaine, and coming across an account from “Curtis” describing how he obtained cocaine from a drugstore at the age of nine–in 1913. It is hard to describe the impact of reading his account in 1990 or so, at a time when few people even remembered that cocaine had once been legal, much less had access to testimony about that moment in time. I wish that Addicts Who Survived had prompted more such oral history projects. For now, we can simply celebrate this particular accomplishment. Here’s a portion of what “Curtis” had to say, below.–Joe Spillane