Chinaman on one's back

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Chinaman on one's back (plural not attested)

1. (slang, offensive) A drug addiction.
   • 2003, David W. Maurer, Whiz Mob: A Correlation of the Technical Argot of Pickpockets with Their Behavior Pattern, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, page 163:

     The chances are that he will stay with his first love, the needle, and that the habit will lose the glorious drive and tingle that it had at first, and become the chinaman on his back who drives him like a slave to get more money to buy more junk.

2. (slang, offensive) Withdrawal symptoms.

• monkey on one's back