more drug measurements

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Cites from "The Acid Affair", Nicholas von Hoffman's series on the
Haight-Ashbury scene, appearing in the Washington Post in October '67...


* key = kilo of marijuana (OED2 1968-70 Current Slang)

Washington Post, Oct 16, 1967, p. A1
Even now smack (heroin) is cheaper in New York, and the grass (marijuana)
trade in Los Angeles is certainly bigger. Not that it's small in the
Haight where grass is purchaseable in 200 kilogram lots (2.2 pounds per
kilo, or key as they say in the trade).

* mike = microgram of acid (OED2 Sept. 1967)

Washington Post, Oct 16, 1967, p. A1
Two hundred and fifty micrograms (a "mike" is one millionth of a gram) is
a good acid powered rocket ride.

* tab = acid tablet (OED2 1968-70 Current Slang)

Washington Post, Oct 17, 1967, p. A6
Owsley tabs, his enthusiastic customers aver, are always pure and always
potent. ... The stories that pop up in the papers from time to time of
thousands of acid tabs being given away to the crowds at free rock
concerts are true.

* tab, v. (not yet in OED)

Washington Post, Oct 17, 1967, p. A6
Most chemists don't tab their own acid. ... There are other stories about
"tabbing parties," the long sessions when the vodka-acid mix is put, a
drop at a time, on each of the thousands of pills. ... Free dope is the
customary compensation for tabbing acid.

* cap, v. (not yet in OED)

Washington Post, Oct 18, 1967, p. A1
Past Steve in the yellow-painted kitchen, Hutch and the two other young
men were seated around a table capping the acid.

Washington Post, Oct 18, 1967, p. A9
Chemists can make a great deal of money and they don't have to pick up
free dope by capping.

* sheets/book = acid in paper form (not yet in OED)

Washington Post, Oct 18, 1967, p. A9
They were passed around and special interest was shown in a new product
which had the acid impregnated on sheets of paper. Six shots to a sheet.
It would be put out in book form so that dealers could rip out however
much the customer wanted.

* lid = ounce of marijuana (give or take -- see other thread)

Washington Post, Oct 19, 1967, p. A7
Small dealers are virtually immune from arrest; it isn't worthwhile
blowing a hard-to-come-by police cover to arrest some kid who's selling
five or six lids (a few ounces) of grass a day at eight dollars a lid.

* dot = small tab of acid (not yet in OED)

Washington Post, Oct 21, 1967, p. A4
"Look, I've got blue dots I'm selling for $1.75." ... They talk for
awhile, but the only deal that's made is that Sharon buys a blue dot to
split with a friend.

* purple = acid pill (OED2 1968)

Washington Post, Oct 22, 1967. p. H1
An Owsley double-domed purple, a hard-to-counterfeit pill, is a guarantee
of purity if not price.

* overamp = overdose (OED3 1968)

Washington Post, Oct 22, 1967. p. H9
"I make 'em take their own stuff, overamp (overdose) till they scream."



--Ben Zimmer