Definition:
: a person who uses cocaine compulsively
About the Word:
It's tempting to think of the 1960s as the decade in which drug culture took off and began to destroy the minds and souls of our youth, but drugs and the abuse of them were common well before then. The cokehead likely existed before 1922, but it is in that year that we first see written evidence of the word. Also in this decade are the first recorded uses of junkie (1923) as well as reefer (1927) and its synonym, Mary Jane (1928).
Example:
"Addicts are nicknamed according to the kind of drug they use. A morphine addict is called a 'hophead' or 'junkhead.' One addicted to cocaine is called a 'cokehead,' 'coke,' 'snowbird,' 'sniffer.' An opium addict is a 'yenshee baby.'" — El Paso Herald, 12 May 1923
