limonov
Bluelighter
To be honest, I have no idea and there's probably no way to ever get a definitive answer...
However, from reading various books (including letters & journals- you're less likely to bend the truth for whatever reason in your journal, though letters are often coded for various reasons), mainly by William S. Burroughs, Hubert Huncke & Allen Ginsberg, in the '40s in NYC heroin was distributed in caps. You would get around 80-100 caps from a quarter ounce after you cut it with milk sugar. Similiarly Edward Bunker talks about heroin being sold in small caps in LA in the ealy '50s in his autobiography.
Infact Edward Bunker puts forward a theory- in the '50s heroin was significantly stronger (much higher purity) and would be sold in small gelatin caps that would blow your head off. As time went on the demand for heroin grew & the purity went down to the point that junkies in the 60-70s were shooting multi-gram shots, simply because it was so cut- necessitating a different method of distribution, so you start getting glassine bags & whatnot. Makes sense to me.
All you can say is that in the 40s & 50s virtually no one used glassine bags, caps were standard. By the 80s & 90s glassine had become standard.
However, from reading various books (including letters & journals- you're less likely to bend the truth for whatever reason in your journal, though letters are often coded for various reasons), mainly by William S. Burroughs, Hubert Huncke & Allen Ginsberg, in the '40s in NYC heroin was distributed in caps. You would get around 80-100 caps from a quarter ounce after you cut it with milk sugar. Similiarly Edward Bunker talks about heroin being sold in small caps in LA in the ealy '50s in his autobiography.
Infact Edward Bunker puts forward a theory- in the '50s heroin was significantly stronger (much higher purity) and would be sold in small gelatin caps that would blow your head off. As time went on the demand for heroin grew & the purity went down to the point that junkies in the 60-70s were shooting multi-gram shots, simply because it was so cut- necessitating a different method of distribution, so you start getting glassine bags & whatnot. Makes sense to me.
All you can say is that in the 40s & 50s virtually no one used glassine bags, caps were standard. By the 80s & 90s glassine had become standard.
