Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(drugs) suffering from withdrawal symptoms when addicted to narcotics, esp. heroin.

1938		D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 108/2: To Be sick. To manifest withdrawal distress [...] Many addicts are sick even when they are not actually deprived of drugs or kicking the habit; as each injection wears off, they have a mild attack of withdrawal symptoms, which disappear as soon as they take narcotics.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 120: Every time he got sick lately it seemed the damned punk was on his heels.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 11: One morning you wake up sick and you’re an addict.
1956		E. Hunter Second Ending 300: He was sick. And he knew why he was sick.
a.1958		‘Broadway Sam’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 98: Without his whore to bring him dough / Sam started to get sick. / He got so sick he sucked a dick. / Big Sam had turned a trick.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 31: ‘That’s Popper [...] he’s sick [...] no doctor can help him’.
1967		Velvet Underground ‘Run Run Run’ 🎵 Marguerita Passion had to get a fix / She wasn’t well – she was gettin’ sick.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 94: I’m sick, don’t you understand – I’m sick!
1971		(con. 1940s) J. Brown Monkey Off My Back (1972) 55: When the change from morphine to Demerol came, I told the doctors I was getting sick.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 69: They discussed ethical questions like whether to let a sick junky have a bag for less than five dollars. Butch [...] insisted that even a sick junky should be made to go back in the street and hustle up the full price.
1989		(con. 1930s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 111: If you approached a woman when you were sick – boom! – it would be over before you even entered her.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 26: I’m short and sick, Homes.
1999		Africa News Service 29 Nov. 🌐 For the next few days he suffered the agonising symptoms of drug dependency withdrawal. ‘I was sick and the doctors could not figure out what was wrong with me.’.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 308: The term ‘sick’ on the street meant sick from heroin withdrawals.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 103: You’re gonna be getting sick in a little while and I’m the answer.
c.2003		Dalton Vrij ‘Tying Off’ on Inter-zone.org 🌐 Dalton started feeling dope sick passing through the Tax shelter territories of Rose Hill and Medina [...] ‘Man o man when I hit that Holland tunnel I was sick.’.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 168: Ah’m a wee bit sick. —Rattlin?
2017		www.firstthings.com Apr. 🌐 Addicts wake up ‘sick,’ which is the word they use for the tremulous, damp, and terrifying experience of withdrawal.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] You ain’t sick. He’s right, I’m not, but I’m not high anymore either.