Do they ever use the word 'heroin'?
I don't recall the word "heroin" being used once in this film, but I heard many euphemisms like "monkey." Was this part of the code?
shareNot calling it by name wasn't technically "part of the code" (since it would be covered under the code's banishment of any discussion or presentation of drug use) but the absence of the word is conspicuous and I'm sure it's the result of either a cautionary choice by the filmmakers or a specific directive given them by the PCA.
shareThe word "heroin" is conspicuous by its absence, isn't it? But I suspect you're right: I'm sure there were a lot of high-level discussions among Preminger, the studio bosses, and the Production Code folks about how to handle this. I guess we're lucky that it was made at all and that it was presented so bluntly -- and starring a pop idol, no less! The
Didn't the code ban drug discussion/presentation specifically when it wasn't relevant to the plot, though? Here it is the plot.
and they rarely call it heroin. They use other words, in this case black or negra since it was in the Southwest.
Yes, it probably was the code, but IRL then and there they probably called it junk, *beep* smack, skag etc..
The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. Samuel Beckett
I was a regular heroin-user for several years of my life in US east-coast/NE cities (clean almost five years now), and I almost NEVER referred to it as 'heroin' except when it was necessary in a conversation to be as specific as possible (eg. when speaking with doctors, rehab/methadone clinics, law-enforcement, social-workers, etc. - Or, conversely, while scoring in a new place and/or from someone I'd never done any previous business with, so as not to accidentally be sold something unexpected). There's nothing worse for someone dependent on heroin and needing to fix in a short amount of time to find out you accidentally blew your money on coke (almost worthless in a situation like that).
I and everyone else I knew just referred to heroin as 'dope' (or sometimes as 'H'). But 'dope' is almost ALWAYS used and many times in reference to other narcotic/opioid drugs in general which could also be used to get the same buzz, or at least stop withdrawal sickness enough to function normally (morphine, oxycodone, fentanyl, etc). So it just always seemed to be taken for granted in the places I lived that dope = narcotics. I still sounds kinda weird to my ears when I hear someone refer to any other drug, or to just drugs in general, as 'dope' (eg. 'Smoking dope' as opposed to 'pot' or 'weed'...)
I know drug slang varies wildly from region to region and have heard that some pretty ridiculous-sounding names for dope are often used out west and south of the border...