"..it is time to recognize the fact that, …. because of drug use; many girls and women have been robbed of their identity, their dignity, their quality of life, and their right to protection. It is time to review our development paradigm and strategies, as well as our approaches to the drug issue, in order to make a real change…, and that will enable women who are affected by the drug problem to reclaim their humanity and their rights."

Changes in society have given women different roles, apart from the traditional ones of wives and mothers, and this has to some extent led to an increase in the levels of drug abuse. 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. The real extent of the impact of drugs on women has only gradually been gaining the attention of policy makers dealing with matters related to drug abuse and illicit trafficking.

There has been less documentation produced about women as drug users than their male counterparts, and most literature do not focus on female drug users as a distinct group.

Many in-patient drug-abuse treatment facilities do not admit women, particularly if they are pregnant or HIV-positive. The reasons given for such restrictive admission policies range from lack of sex-segregated accommodation and lack of expertise in dealing with pregnant drug abusers to fear of transmission of HIV to other patients and to staff. Consequently, most health facility statistics under report female drug abusers. Since such statistics are one of the main sources for official annual reports on drug abuse to the United Nations, the data on women have remained scanty.

It is important to note, however, that female drug users may differ from their male counterparts with regards to their background, their reasons for using drugs, their psycho-social problems and needs in response to how they are viewed by society. 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, or because of fear of having their children taken away.

Also:

• Biologically, women are at higher risk than men of HIV infection through both infections and sexual transmission.
• Women may become more quickly addicted than men to certain drugs, such as crack cocaine, even after casual or experimental use.
• Many women drug users have abusive fathers and/ or spouses, and lack financial security. For such women, drugs sometimes become a source of escape from the hard realities of survival.
• Research indicates that up to 70% of drug abusing women report history of physical and sexual abuse. (National Institute on Drug Abuse - NIDA)

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.

Why women endure such abuses may be related to a number of factors. On the one hand it is the effect of the enculturation process that women are socialized to try to adhere to the "good wife" and "good mother" image, that makes women feel they have to sacrifize themselves for the sake of the husband or children. On the other hand, many women lack educational and vocational skills and thus have to depend on the husband physically and financially.

Women are particularly at risk of HIV infection through sexual relations with male partners who are drug abusers and HIV positive. Some women may trade sex to support their partner's drug habit and are thus at risk from sexually transmitted diseases or HIV infection.

Women with drug-addicted husbands often suffer:

• Verbal and physical abuse;
• Sexual abuse;
• Poverty;
• Emotional stress;
• Social and economic insecurity;
• Uncertain futures;
• Lack of basic facilities;
• Low self-esteem.

Women, who usually bear the major responsibility for ensuring family income in situations of crisis, have more limited options for earning an income. Thus, some women in these circumstances turn to drug related income sources.

Women are more likely to engage in sex work or selling drugs in order to finance their addiction, while men tend to engage in other criminal activities, such as theft.

An increasing number of women are engaged 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 change in the structure of society and of the economy, that have forced women into work in order to raise the income of their families.

Women are also used as drug couriers. Over 50 percent of the couriers arrested at London Heathrow airport between September 1991 and April 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 John F. Kennedy airport between 1986 and 1990 and sentenced to life terms in prison for drug trafficking, 96 per cent had no previous criminal record.

In some countries, women are often subject to differential (harsher) sentences than men for similar drug-related offences.

• Financially dependent and cannot take any independent decisions.
• Trained to obey their fathers, regardless of the consequences of the fact that the father is a drug user. Some may be used as drug couriers.
• May be pushed into child prostitution in order to provide funds to purchase drugs.
• Often socialized for life in the vicious cycle of obedience and submission to men.
• Have less access to education and skills training.

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 exist between the sexes, rather than looking at women and men separately.

Also, we need to:

• Empower women through equal access to education and vocational training.
• Sensitize both men and women about gender bias and how it affects their lives.
• Revise and shift the development paradigm and strategies to one that restore respect for human dignity and equality.

• Usa Duongsa (1998) Executive Council Member of the Asian Harm Reduction Network, Women, Gender and Drugs, speech given to UNDP Panel Discussion on Drugs and Development at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs, New York, 9th June, 1998.
• United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) (1994): Women and Drug Abuse: a position paper by the United Nations System, v.94-27286. 17 February 1994.
• Regional Health Report (1998): Focus on Women. World Health Organization, South East Asia Region
• United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNODCCP) (1995): Towards a gender- sensitive approach to drug demand reduction: a process within the United Nations system, Bulletin on Narcotics - Issue 1 - 002
• United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNODCCP) (1998): If drugs affect women, they affect society - Gran Angular - March 1998

Dated: 9Jan2001