Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) very intoxicated by narcotics.

[1919		Ogden Standard (UT) 2 May 9/4: Wouldst Know the Language of Gob [...] For one to be ‘gowd up’ is to have too much liquor].
1931		‘Experience’ in Lingenfelter et al. Songs of the Amer. West (1968) 324: But I quit my very first pay-day, / And got all gowed up to beat hell.
1936		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 121/2: gowed. Having too much dope, in which case the effect is spoiled and the addict goes into a sort of stupor.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 105: gowed up Under the influence of narcotics.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 71: Gowed up – Of a drug addict, buoyed up by a recent ingestion of a narcotic, esp. opium.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 801: gowed up – Under the influence of drugs or liquor.
1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 323: I stumbled out again, gowed to the tits.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 114: She’s so gowed she’s in slow motion, eyes below half mast and face slack.
2013		J. Stahl Happy Mutant Baby Pills 97: Even gowed on smack I was disgusted.