Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to idle, to loaf about.

1905		in Indep. 22 June 1938: The man of the tenement? Oh, he broods and ‘dopes’ his life away [HDAS].
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 644: He nodded at McGoorty who doped by a squat mail-box, looking dumb.
1942		W. Faulkner Go Down Moses 47: You doped around in it today like you hadn’t been to bed for a week.
1989		(con. 1968) W.E. Merritt Where the Rivers Ran Backward 104: Garrison duty’s a drag. Nothing to do but dope.