Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a regular user of marijuana.

1934		Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra [instrumental title] ‘Song of the Vipers.’.
1938		Bob Howard & His Boys ‘If You’re a Viper’ 🎵 Then you’ll know your body’s sent / You won’t care if you don’t pay rent / The sky is high, and so am I / If you’re a viper.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 27: There were packages of tea — the most righteous tea, / And the vipers all shouted and clapped loud with glee.
1950		Fads & Fancies 1 3: For those who don’t know, marijuana (or tea or weed or gauge — there is a whole new language here) is a drug [...] smoked in cigarettes known as reefers or mezzes or muggles. If you are in the habit of smoking [...] you are a ‘viper’ and when you are experiencing the full effects of the drug you are ‘high’.
1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 34: How simply she could become a Viper again.
1958		F. Norman Bang To Rights 173: When she has gone the viper gets the weed and packs it solid into the durex.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 65: ‘“Viper’s Dream” I call it. Didn’t know I’d painted it till I woke up this morning’.
1962		(con. 1950s) H. Simmons Man Walking On Eggshells 193: He was getting what they called a viper. He stayed stoned all the time.
1974		(con. 1945) M. Angelou Gather Together In My Name 113: Dream about a reefer five foot long [...] You’ll be high but not for long / If you’re a viper.
2002		E. Damerson in Dusted Mag. at Trikont.com 🌐 Seasoned vipers such as Fats Waller and Cab Calloway pay dap to the dealer, as the party starts swingin’ and the panties drop as he darkens the door.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1938		Shorty Bob Parker ‘Death of Slim Green’ 🎵 I'm gonna tell you, well the very best I can; / ’Bout the death of Slim Green, he was a viper man. / [...] / He loved his smokin', how he craved his gin; / Well he had his tea until the very end.
1959		Mad mag. Apr. 29: Only Viceroy has a swinging cat’s reed. A viper cat’s groove!

3. a regular user of heroin; cite 1994 may refer to crack cocaine.

1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 219: That’s all you and your girlfriend is, is two walking vipers.
1994		W.D. Myers Glory Field 315: ‘Yo, put the money away! [...] They got stone vipers in here, man. You got to watch every move’.
2009		W.D. Myers Dope Sick 25: Rico was a stone viper [with] a hundred-dollar-a-day jones he had to support.

4. an injection of morphine and heroin.

1989

in G. Tremlett Little Legs 198: viper a euphemism for snake-bite, an injection of morphine and heroin.