Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US drugs, also Mr. Jones) drug addiction, esp. to heroin.

1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 272: I’ve got a jones.
1972		O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 127: ‘I don’t think he and Bam can get high from smokin’ anymore.’ ‘Probably not . . . not behind Mr. Jones.’.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 150: His jones comes down on him so bad he starts to lose his cool.
1989		P. Benchley Lush 84: Heroin withdrawal. There’s good jones, when you just sort of feel like shit for a while, and bad jones, when you get the shakes and the shivers and the sweats and the pukes and cramps like you can’t believe.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 42: The Barker drilled that into his head: never cop to your jones.
2001		G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 176: He figured she started by snorting it [i.e. heroin]. Probably thought it was okay, doin’ it like that, like she couldn’t get a jones behind it that way.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Chuck was a crackhead [...] he had even stolen the air conditioner out of a local church’s window. His Jones was that sacrilegious.

2. (US drugs, also A-jones) a heroin addict.

1962		Maurer & Vogel Narcotics and Narcotic Addiction (2nd edn).
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho – Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 197: A-Jones, n. – a drug addict (1940s and 50s).

3. (US drugs) heroin.

1973		M. Agar Ripping and Running 161: Jones [...] 2. Heroin.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 236: When you’ve had a good jones, you’re hooked for the rest of your life.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 13: Jones — Heroin.

4. the symptoms of heroin withdrawal.

1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 285: My jones is on me; it’s on me something terrible. I feel so sick.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 133: jones [...] the withdrawal symptoms arising out of this habit.
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 342: jones: [...] 2. The effects of withdrawal from a drug.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] She will [remember] he thinks, when she really comes to and the jones start to kick in.

5. (US) a strong craving or habit, whether for cigarettes, food, a person or anything, e.g. a love jones, a chocolate jones.

1973		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 2: have a Jones – to be addicted to something: Joe has a basketball Jones.
1974		H.L. Foster Playin’ the Dozens 345: [T]he youngster with a somewhat street ‘jones’ is moving beyond the game of self-destruction. [...] He is testing his teachers by demanding of them, ‘Why don’t you teach me?’.
1981		A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 178: He invited Sweet Rudy and Jacki to come over and ‘see a kitten with a catnip Jones’.
1985		O. Hawkins Chili 18: We embraced. After all, we were old friends now. She, as my jones. Lord only knows how she saw me.
1989		A. Vachss Hard Candy (1990) 92: You’re a fucking nutcase yourself, Burke, You got this Jones for kids.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 43: Crank it up! I’m runnin a juice jones!
1998		Guardian 23 Jul. 24: Fatigued, he tries a French holiday and a diet of Gide and Courbet but his trash jones takes hold again.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hot-Prowl Rape-O’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 293: Lauter craves white lady and white snatch [...] sees Megan More on TV, and gets a jones.
2006		G. Iles Turning Angel 150: Cyrus has a serious jones for white girls.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 8: The mysterious tactile jones every meth monster knows.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Sunset’ in Broken 177: When he needed cash to finance his surf jones, all he had to do was put on a wet suit with a logo [...] and they gave him money.

6. (US drugs) a marijuana cigarette.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 171: A marijuana cigarette [...] j, jones, joint.