Talk:Junkie

Interwiki
Hello, I noticed that the interwiki links are not all about the same topic. There are two topics: Junk_(song) and Junkie (someone who is addicted to drugs). Therefore I decided to remove the interwikilinks to articles which are not about the same topic. When you edit the links on an article, please edit them here, too. --Church of emacs 14:49, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Articles about the song

 * Junk_(song)
 * Junk
 * ジャンク (ポール・マッカートニー)
 * Junk

Articles about drug addict

 * Junkie
 * Junkie
 * Junk
 * Junkie

Drug addict
I would contest the assertion that junkie refers to any drug addict. Sure, the term has come to be prefaced with qualifiers for other, facetious “addictions” (e.g. “political junkie”) but one would never hear the term, for example, “weed junkie,” or “crank junkie,” unless it was, once again, a facetious use. Indeed, I would argue, constructions such as those arise from the more general use of junkie having come to mean “enthusiast.” For other drug addictions, there are, also, specific terms: speed freak, pothead, wino, etc. Using junkie, unqualified, I believe refers only to heroin addicts, and I have edited the page accordingly. —Wikipedihol Junkie 00:58, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

I do agree with your removal of the statement about 'junkie' primarily referring to a(ny) drug addict. However, 'junkie' is a commonly used term for a person who has a substance addiction, and as such, have added a link to the Drug Addiction page in the list. Jersey emt (talk) 03:36, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Origin of the term
This article, apparently reproduced from a September 1998 edition of the Sunday Times, may be of interest: "In 1913, Bayer decided to stop making heroin. There had been an explosion of heroinrelated admissions at New York and Philadelphia hospitals, and in East Coast cities a substantial population of recreational users was reported (some supported their habits by collecting and selling scrap metal, hence the name "junkie")." DWaterson (talk) 01:10, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 30 October 2015
The term "junkie" originated from the 1920's when heroin addicts would sell scrap metal and other junk to pay for their habit.

Sources - History Today: http://www.historytoday.com/ian-scott/heroin-hundred-year-habit Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/278gaq/til_that_the_word_junkie_originates_from_the/ Bluelight: http://www.bluelight.org/vb/archive/index.php/t-69589.html

Rhinoslot (talk) 09:43, 30 October 2015 (UTC)


 * ❌ The History Today source is okay, but the other two are not reliable. There is also a source mentioned in the previous talk page section above. It's possible, but I doubt this is accurate, and it's too neat not to consider the possibility of false etymology. The Online Etymology Dictionary says that junk has been used to refer to narcotics prior to the use of junkie, which could be wrong, but Wikipedia shouldn't be propagating these kinds of things without very solid sources. Grayfell (talk) 22:56, 4 November 2015 (UTC)