Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also pin-yen toy, toey) a small container, approx. 54 cm (1in) diameter, used to hold prepared opium.

1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 127: Sonia [...] dug out the chocolate-colored opium from a little white jar, a ‘toey,’ cooking it over a steady flame.
1920		F. Williams Hop-Heads 112: A yen shee toy is the ivory vessel in a joint which holds opium to the weight of 12 foon.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 142: Chang was always on call, to go to Americans with ‘toys’ of hop, ready to ‘cook,’ if desired by his patrons.
1930		G. Milburn ‘The Dealer Gets It All’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 152: Then I sprung a rosy lay-out on my side-pen Alton Red, / And we blowed a toy o’ white slufe that knocked the willies dead.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 254: What you did was you took a toy (a tin) of hop and shook it up with this medicine in a bottle and kept taking it every day.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 177: pin-yen toy A small tin box used for prepared opium.
1952		Lannoy & Masterson ‘Teen-age Hophead Jargon’ AS XXVII:1 30: TOY, n. A round tin salve container of opium.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

2. a measure of opium, a small ball, approx. the size of a pea.

1952		(con. 1920s) G. Fowler Schnozzola 88: You had six toys at five dollars a toy.
1958		(con. late 19C) D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 15 Feb. 13: One could buy a ‘toy’ of hop for a quarter in any Chinese restaurant .
1964		Larner & Tefferteller Addict in the Street (1966) 139: They used to sell it in what the Chinese call ‘toys’ [...] In the early 1930s it was three toys for five dollars.
1989		(con. 1920s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 84: I smoked a toy a day [...] You could buy a small toy for two dollars.
1991		(ref. to 1918) J. Breslin Damon Runyon (1992) 177: The act [...] began with Jackson sprawled on a chair and pretending to be smoking opium [...] When Jackson took small balls of wax and said he was making ‘toys’ everybody laughed.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 21: Toys — Opium.

3. a hypodermic syringe.

1972		D. Claerbaut Black Jargon in White America 84: toys n. a set of equipment used by drug addicts.
1987		Eble Campus Sl. Spring 9: works – syringe for injecting drugs. Also things, gadgets, gizmo, toys.
1993		E. Richards Cocaine True 64: Syringes, toys, gizmos, guns, works, call ’em what you want.