Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also bennie, bennies) Benzedrine; one pill of Benzedrine; thus benny-head, a Benzedrine user.

1945		Kerouac letter 13 Nov. in Charters I (1995) 99: I’m high on Benny, and alone in the cursed kitchen.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 217: I got a deal on with a guy who got his hands on six bennies.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 55: Just another kick like nembies, or bennies, or lush.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 96: ‘Bennies, L.S.D., or nems?’.
1963		G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 108: I’m bushed. Can you fix me up with a couple of bennies?
1971		Harper’s Mag. Sept. 63: Gets drunk once a month on 3.2 beer. Pops a dex or a bennie occasionally, especially during exam week. Tried marijuana at a be-in last summer.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 171: Vickie started to take bennies so that she could stay awake.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 102: We’ll have a fag or two / or smoke a joint / maybe a benny just before our lunch.
1998		Bug (Aus.) 16 Aug. 🌐 The bennies did us old hands the world of good because more often than not we were carrying a niggling hangover into the game.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 79: The bennies are kicking in, so I’ll have to watch my gob.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 161: Wayne muscled a Monarch Cab man, stole some bennies.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 16/1: benny (also benzo) n. an amphetamine pill; usually speed or Benzedrine.
2013		J. Stahl Bad Sex on Speed 135: That yegg Huncke picked my pocket. We was both high on bennies.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 27: [G]oblets crammed with goofballs and bennies.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 111: You’ve got to stick to it [i.e. writing] with the energy of a benny addict.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 136: His wife was [...] gobbling up about ten dollars’ worth of benny tubes a week.