Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) to inhale cocaine; thus sleigh-rider n., one who inhales cocaine; sleigh-riding n., inhaling cocaine.

1913		Sat. Eve. Post 15 Feb. in DN IV:ii 127: ‘Coke sniffer,’ explained Tom. ‘They call cocaine crystals snow and a coke user is a sleigh rider.’.
1919		C.S. Montanye ‘White as Snow’ Detective Story 18 Feb. 🌐 Mike the Mouse picked up his acquaintance in a Rialto cafe and promptly learned [...] that the man was a ‘sleigh rider’.
1927		C. Sandburg ‘Cocaine Lil’ in Amer. Songbag 206: She wore a snowbird hat and sleigh-riding clothes.
1929		E. Caldwell Bastard (1963) 35: ‘Be careful,’ Rose whispered [...] ‘she’s sleigh-riding.’.
1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 335/2: sleigh rider, n. A user of ‘snow,’ i.e., cocaine.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
2025		(con. 1930s) T. Pynchon Shadow Ticket 14: ‘Leapers and sleigh riders [...] lingring all day over house formulas with cocaine as the main ingredient’ [ibid.] 158: [A] shiver perhaps not altogether unconnected with sleigh-riding activities.

(b) to take morphine (which is also white).

1949

N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 326: I’d be back sleigh-ridin’ in two days without you.

(c) to give someone cocaine.

1965

‘Cocaine Nell’ B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 124: I’m gonna sleigh-ride you.