joy powder
An older, euphemistic street name for heroin — the kind of cheerful-sounding label that early 20th-century drug culture used to cloak something dangerous in innocent packaging.
Definitions
An older, euphemistic street name for heroin — the kind of cheerful-sounding label that early 20th-century drug culture used to cloak something dangerous in innocent packaging. The 'joy' half promises pleasure and escape, while 'powder' refers to the drug's physical form. Like many vintage drug slang terms, joy powder has been largely displaced by newer terminology but still appears in historical accounts of addiction, jazz-age drug culture, and noir fiction.
The detective's notes described the white residue simply as joy powder — a label the department knew all too well.
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(slang) Heroin.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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Semantically related
- joypop65%
(slang) To use drugs recreationally without becoming addicted.
- joy house64%
A dated American slang term for a brothel — dressing up the nature of the establishment with a cheerfully evasive name. Like many euphemisms for sex work venues, 'joy house' leans into ironic understatement, using the word 'joy' to sidestep the blunter vocabulary. Common in mid-20th century crime fiction and noir dialogue, it belongs to a tradition of colorful underworld vocabulary that used innocent-sounding words to discuss illicit businesses.
- baby powder64%
(slang, drugs, very, uncommon) Cocaine.
- joypopper63%
(slang) One who joypops; one who uses drugs recreationally without addiction.