Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a pipeload of opium (later cannabis); thus long draw / short draw, defining the way of smoking the pipe: at a single inhalation or via several.

1882		A. Trumble Heathen Chinee 33: Smokers are said to take the ‘long draw’ or the ‘short draw’ according to whether they consume a pill in one long or several short inspirations.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 29: There were bunks in which parties of two took the long draws (inhaled the opium pills).
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 143: He now inhaled his tenth draw and laid the stem aside.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 33: ‘It’s best not to let the others know that you don’t smoke [i.e. cannabis]. I’ll give you a crafty draw on mine’.

2. (Aus.) a cigarette.

1934		C. Himes ‘To What Red Hell’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 282: A convict rushed past, smoking a Bull Durham cigarette. Jimmy said, ‘Give me a draw’ .
1944		A. Marshall These Are My People (1957) 58: ‘Cut it [i.e. smoking] down,’ I advised him. ‘I like a draw now and then,’ he said.
1959		G. Slatter A Gun in My Hand 23: Time for a coupla draws before the bell goes.
1961		Galton & Simpson ‘The Train Journey’ Hancock’s Half-Hour [TV script] sid: Do you fancy stretching your legs [...] just down the corridor for a cough and a draw? lady: A what? sid: An oily rag . . . a snout . . . fag.
1973		F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 145: [O]ne match-thin cigarette [...] would have been sufficient to satisfy our common craving for a draw.
1983		A. Payne ‘Willesden Suite’ Minder [TV script] 4: Three or four chefs idling round by a no-smoking sign, having a crafty draw.
1999		D. Healy Sudden Times 139: What are you doing there? he asked. Having a draw.

3. (drugs) cannabis, a portion of cannabis, esp. as an ounce or multiples thereof, e.g. five-draw, seven-draw etc.

1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
1992		in R. Graef Living Dangerously 46: Draw, hash, pot or whatever, £15 for an eighth, which is 3.5 grams.
1997		C. Newland Scholar 60: He and Garvey had got a draw of weed for the girl.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 272: Ferget smack, crack, E; the real drug scourge uv this generation is draw.
2017		Big Shaq ‘Man Not Hot’ 🎵 [Y]our dad is forty-four / And he’s still callin’ man for a draw (look at him).
2017		L. McInerney Blood Miracles 6: Dan bonds with them, in so far as these kinds of boys can bond, over Dutch draw.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 120: ‘I’m back on the draw, I’m not even getting stoned’.

4. a cannabis cigarette.

1992		in R. Graef Living Dangerously 169: He [...] buys bigger draws (cannabis cigarettes) than me.
1994		M. Montague Dread Culture 51: One of the best draws of herb she had ever smoked.
2001		UGK ‘Choppin’ Blades’ 🎵 I’m puffin’ on the ’dro, I got the pistol in the do’.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 13: We can buy a draw or two [...] or maybe a q [and] get properly faded.