If drugs affect women, they affect society

WHEN THE PARTNER IS A DRUG ABUSER

Mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of a drug abuser often try to hide or reduce the abuse of the male and in doing so they may experience social, health and economic disadvantages which can include domestic violence. A World Health Organisation (WHO) provisional report, published in 1993, points out that 97 per cent of domestic violence cases reported in Central America were started by a male aggressor under the influence of alcohol.

In general, a woman who lives with a drug-dependent spouse has to take responsibility for keeping the family. In many cases women start to drink o to take tranquillisers in order to cope with the problem. Some women may trade sex to support their partner's drug habit and, frequently become users themselves, and are thus at risk from sexually transmitted diseases or AIDS. For example, data collected from women in Sao Paulo, Brazil, whose sexual partners used injections drugs, showed an increase in HIV prevalence from 33 per cent to 82.4 per cent between 1984 - 89. Women in developing countries may be further disadvantaged by having less access to information and education about drug and sex related diseases.

FEMALES ABUSING DRUGS

World-wide, the number of women, especially adolescents, who take illicit drugs has increased. However, looking at comparative tables on drug use between men and women, one can conclude that men generally use alcohol and illicit drugs whilst women generally take tranquillisers and sedatives. It has been found that adolescents prefer marihuana, amphetamines and sedatives. Another WHO study found that girls start to use cocaine and marihuana at a younger age than boys.

Females abusing drugs are likely to be more stigmatized than their male counterparts because their activities are regarded by society as "double deviance": abusing drugs is violating social codes of behaviour and diverting from the traditional expectations of the female as wife, mother and family nurturer. Female drug abuse may cause more disruption to family life because legal and social consequences tend to be more severe: many countries do not have drug treatment facilities for pregnant or HIV positive women; the support of community institutions which habitually provide shelter and financial assistance to single mothers may be withheld. Women may not seek treatment for fear of hostility from medical authorities, and because they may have their children taken away.

WOMEN TODAY

Changes in society have given women different roles, apart from the traditional ones of wives and mothers, this has to some extent led to an increase in the levels of drug abuse. In most societies gender stereotypes are disappearing. For example a study of women and drugs in Jamaica shows that the removal of norms and taboos which drew clear boundaries between activities or responsibilities considered either "male" or "female" has also lifted a layer of protection which isolated them from involvement in drugs.

The different causes seen responsible for the increase in drug abuse among women are one way or another related to the roles and responsibilities of women in the society we live in. It is not merely factors such as their access to illicit drugs, lack of information, pressure exerted by their partner o by a specific group, poverty, domestic violence or sexual abuse. Women's traditional roles or the conservative framework of the economy are not enough to shield women from drug abuse.

WOMEN IN THE DRUG BUSINESS

An increasing number of women are involved in the cultivation, processing and street dealing of drugs. Many women are involved in growing opium in Asia and the coca leaf in South America. A study on the cocaine market in New York, made at the end of the eighties, found that women are involved in drug trafficking. Their participation is related to the expansion of the drug trade, as well as to changes in the structure of society and of the economy, that have forced women into work in order to raise the incomes of their families.

Women are also used as drug couriers. Over 50 per cent of the couriers arrested at London Heathrow airport between September 1991 and Apri1 1992 were female. These couriers generally have much in common, they are women of childbearing age, single or married with children, unemployed, low educated and poor. Usually female drug couriers are not drug users themselves, and therefore do not understand the significance of their assignment. Of all the women arrested at New York's JFK airport between 1986 and 1990 and sentenced to life terms in prison for drug trafficking, 96 per cent had no previous criminal record.

TACKLING THE PROBLEM

The manner in which the problem of women and drug abuse is tackled will seriously affect the family and the community at large. Furthermore, in order to understand the consequences of drug abuse, to determine effective action aimed at reducing demand and to create treatment and rehabilitation programmes, it is vital to focus on the relationship that exists between the sexes, rather than looking at women and men separately.