Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (drugs) to give an injection of narcotics to relieve someone’s withdrawal symptoms.

1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 136: If he [i.e. a drug addict] is feeling neither very bad nor very good he takes a jolt ‘just to get himelf straightened around’.
1943		J. Mitchell McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon (2001) 32: Between us, we got the woman straightened out.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 103: You straight man, just straighten me.
1964		Larner & Tefferteller Addict in the Street (1966) 204: One bag’s not enough to straighten me.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 256: If I had a couple a bucks I could see soma the boys tanight and maybe we’d pick somethin up. Thats what I need to straighten me out.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 58: Like I might find old Joe Schmo today and buy three bags from him and find that one bag straightens me out.
2000		M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 8: The brown had straightened him out, he felt almost chipper.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] She cooks and fixes. [...] Straightened out, she says, ‘You got any money?’.

2. (also straighten away, straighten out, straighten up) to stop (someone) taking addictive drugs.

1934		F. Tuohy Inside Dope 97: Well, I won’t say it exactly does you good, but if you go to a clinic now and then to get straightened out you escape the worst [...] A three weeks’ disintoxication or ‘straightening out’, minimum period, and not a cure but merely a cleansing of the system, will be undertaken against a fee of four to five thousand francs.
1952		H. Ellson Golden Spike 141: All right, I’ll straighten up.
1956		‘James Updyke’ [W.R. Burnett] It’s Always Four O’Clock 49: ‘Have you really got [i.e. drug addiction] beat?’ I asked. ‘Yes,’ said Royal. ‘Then let it stay beat. We’ll get you straightened out’.
1958		Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 54: They’d both been threatening to have me committed and sent away if I didn’t straighten up.
1964		Larner & Tefferteller Addict in the Street (1966) 223: Usually it’s the girl who straightens out a fella.
1968		L. Wolf Voices from the Love Generation 6: I got straightened away.
1993		R. Shell Iced 57: Go and stay with mama, she might be able to straighten you out.
1995		G. Pelecanos Down by the River 2: A stretch in Lorton had straightened him all the way out, though no one mistook his clean lifestyle for the lifestyle of a pushover.
1997		L. Pettiway Workin’ It 179: Still, I wouldn’t straighten up.
2003		A.N. LeBlanc Random Family 131: Lourdes’ family were working people, and whenever Lourdes visited, she straightened out.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] Call back when you’ve straightened out. Yes you are, you’re off your tits.
2018		W. Kramer Hard Stuff 187: I expressed my sincere desire to straighten up.

3. to stabilise one’s emotions with alcohol.

1953		J. Thompson Alcoholics (1993) 70: Put a few stiff ones under your belt — just enough to get straightened out.
1959		‘Monroe Fry’ Sex, Vice & Business 116: I was in a bar when a man came in and announced [...] that he had been to a real party the night before and needed one to straighten himself out.
1989		L. Aparvary Legionnaire’s Journey 190: The hot coffee with rum helped to straighten me out a bit .

4. to stabilise someone’s emotions (without drink or drugs).

1966

(con. 1958) R. Farina Been Down So Long (1972) 47: I really thought I’d found him [...] ready to straighten my head once and for all.

5. in general sense, to give or sell drugs.

1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 103: You straight man, just straighten me.
1965		H. Huncke in Huncke’s Journal (1998) 32: Phil [...] cut into a chick he knows who straightened him.

6. of drugs, to intoxicate pleasantly.

1970

A. Young Snakes (1971) 29: That good gauge’ll straighten anybody out in a minute! [...] Yeahhh straighten you out and jeck you around too.