Why They Used Heroin Not Alcohol In The 1950s

The speaker is author Claude Brown. He wrote the classic novel Manchild In The Promised Land. It describes his life growing up in Harlem New York in the 1950s with street gangs, violence, drugs, and alcohol consumption.

His parents were sharecroppers in Georgia. They moved to New York City with the hope of a better life. Claude grew up in a gang environment which he loved as he describes in this video clip. He was actively involved in stealing, heavy alcohol alcohol consumption, gang wars.

He was a very juvenile delinquent kid and his parents sent him to relatives in South Carolina in the hopes of getting him out of that culture. He wrote that he missed the violence on the streets and he quickly found his way back to the gang world.

The New York State juvenile court system sent him to the famous Wiltwick School For Boys. We New Yorkers knew it as the place you went if you were really bad. He met a psychiatrist there who encouraged him to seek an education, but when he went back on the streets, he returned to the violent drug infested world he loved. He was shot in the stomach and almost died.

Deciding that he had to get out of that culture and desiring an education, he moved to New York’s Greenwich Village to get away from the gang culture that he loved. He was sad to see friends of his go down as a result of drugs and dangerous living.

He wrote the book Manchild In The Promised Land. Today, while the book is studied in many high schools as part of their English programs, it is also banned in others because of its “foul language.” I got to interview Claude in 1989 for my television series on the 1960s. Although the video of my interview was destroyed in a fire that destroyed much of my archives in 2008, I did did keep this interview which was given me by New York public television station WNET, who broadcast this incredible interview with Claude right after he wrote his book.

The interviewer is Norman Podhoretz. The interview took place in 1965, sometime after Claude Brown's book was released.

Claude Brown died in 2002 at 64 years old

[bugdomkappa]

The ending was the editing getting high on Heroin

[gazm]

It was considered a "cooler" escape. It was seen as the opposite of being drunk, yelling and fighting. The dangers of getting hooked wasn't really thought about.

[hellxsco]

I thought my phone was glitching at the end

[dtrrvbb]

Five drunks start a fight
Five stoners start a band.

[FoodNomadz]

The ending of this video was the start of the crack epidemic

[nodnoc]

True, when I was a heroin addict I never got into fights or bothered anyone, and I was lucky enough to either always have money for it or my friends would spot me so I wouldn’t be sick for too long. I haven’t used in 3 years this October!

[bleh]

I had a older male cousin Corey. He was the sweetest person, everyone adored him and called him the best person in the family. He had a heart of gold and never hurt a person in his life. But he went through a lot and never tried to get help and when offered it he said he was fine, no one could help him. So at 16 he got addicted to heroine and started stealing from his parents for drug money so they kicked him out, he lived the rest of his life in a shed with no electricity or anything. He overdosed at 21. That is the sad reality of heroine. It may not make people mean or killers, but it will still kill

[michaellopez]

I like how he makes sure to admit it's not a rebellion against violence.

[dustinairola]

I’ve been around every kind of different drug addict on the planet and can confirm that drunks are the fucking worst.

[zutkgek]

Claude Brown survived that minefield of heroin addiction, crime/ violence, prison and despair to become a student at Howard University and eventually a lawyer. His book, Manchild in the Promised land, is a powerful and engaging account of his experience growing-up in Harlem at that time.

[AwesometownUSA]

There’s always violence associated with drugs. Fortunately for Americans, when the government began procuring opiates in the 1950s & 60s, we were able to outsource the violence to the place where it was coming from (Southeast Asia).

In the 70s & 80s, when that connection was drying up and tastes changed to prefer cocaine and crack, the violent extraction regime moved to South America. However, that doesn’t mean the American market was free of violence — especially among street-level distributors vying for territory.

And then during the War on Terror, we found a renewed source of opiates in Afghanistan — but since the WoT era conflicts were massive handouts to contractors and American corporations, we got the pharmaceutical industry involved and they repackaged heroin as “OxyContin” … which in turn fueled another round of mass opioid addiction in the States (which continues to this day).

[kaecake]

“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”

[Drew]

As an addict I can confidently say that heroin users are extremely calm, docile and polite; until the withdrawals kick in and you have to find money for your next fix.

[rxw]

The idea that “we don’t wanna be losers who drink alcohol, so we’ll do heroine instead” is real crazy.

[zaytaylor]

Who tf is hitting each other in the head with meat cleaver and axes 😭😭😂😂...yall was WILIN 😳💀🤣😭😂

[wegaan]

At the end I thought my phone was messed up but it was just the drugs coming through.

[nubian]

His name is Claude Brown and he is the author of the auto biography "Manchild In The Promised Land" an extraordinary account of life in Harlem.

[Halofrk]

Heroine is a female hero, Heroin is a drug

[MK]

I think its funny that people actually think heroin is worse then alcohol. Making alcohol legal doesn't change the fact its a hard drug.😂

[MoonBull]

"ILL SHOW YOU DAD" - *od's on the sidewalk*