Patterns of drug use, sales and trafficking are profoundly gendered
By: Camille Stengel, and
Jennifer Fleetwood
August 2014
Most users, dealers and traffickers are men, so women
suffer from their “Cinderella status” whereby interventions are aimed at the
majority, and neglect to seriously consider their impact on women. Responses to
women involved with illicit drugs must take gender into account to produce fair
outcomes that ensure international human rights obligations and meet the
reality of women’s lives.
Significance
Women and men are impacted by drug policy differently.
This is the case not only for drug use, but also with regards to treatment and
punishment.
Despite being a statistical minority in all aspects of
the drug trade, women tend to be most involved in the lower levels of the
trade, where the greatest concentration of arrests occur.1
Women additionally experience greater prejudice and
judgment due to gendered social expectations. Since women often are, or are
expected to be caregivers, their involvement with drugs has gender specific
repercussions.
Analysis
Drug use and drug cultures
Drug use and drug cultures are male dominated.
Internationally the level of illicit drug use is about twice the rate for men
compared to women. Women tend to try drugs at an earlier age than boys. As a
result young women and men may have similar degrees of experience with drugs in
early adolescence.2 Teenage boys ‘catch up’ quickly and by
their late teens are more likely to have tried ‘harder’ drugs (e.g. cocaine,
heroin, and synthetics such as methamphetamine) than women, and be more regular
drug users. There are important exceptions, relating to ethnicity, disability,
marital status, and so not all women (or men) will fit these general patterns.
In the UK, researchers have also noted important demographic changes with young
people who are now less likely to try drugs than previous generations.3
However
women who are already vulnerable by dint of homelessness or sex worker status
are often victimised by their drug using peers. This can lead to unsafe drug
using practices such as sharing needles, having unprotected sex with clients or
partners, and being caught in a cycle of violence with romantic partners.6,7 Internationally,
research consistently finds a correlation between illicit injecting drug use
and a history trauma (emotional, physical, and/or sexual) in women drug users
lives.8,9 This
does not mean that all women who use drugs are also victims of abuse, but does
call attention to the fact that a correlation does exist, and that policies and
programmes should be developed with this in mind.
Drug markets and the drug trade
Women typically perform auxiliary activities in the
street level drug trade such as buying drugs for others, stashing drugs, or
drug making supplies or renting out their apartment for drugs to be processed
(in the case of crack cocaine). This makes them vulnerable to arrest or robbery
from other drug dealers.10
Women’s participation in international drug
trafficking is noteworthy. Women represent up to 30% of those arrested for drug
trafficking offences worldwide,11 mainly in minor roles – especially as drug mules. This role is
characterised by lack of control over one’s labour, and mules are often subject
to threats and coercion.12
Women are also involved in cultivation activities.
There are 4 million men, women and children cultivating drug crops worldwide
and the evidence suggests that women have an unrecognised and disproportionate
share of these agricultural activities.13,14
Criminalisation
Criminalisation of drug offences drives women’s
imprisonment worldwide. In Europe and central Asia, more than one in four women
in prison is charged with a drug offence.15,16 In the U.S., the population of women prisoners in
federal and state prisons have grown by about 900% in 40 years. Over half of
women in federal prison are incarcerated for drug-related offences, and a disproportionate
number are black or Latina.17 These
stark figures have prompted academics to describe the war on drugs as a war on
women, especially those of colour.18
The impact of a drugs conviction carries a double
penalty for women: many lose their job, accommodation and care for children.19 Drug offences carry stigma and social isolation; their
children often share this burden.20
Violence against women is a global problem, and women
who are detained for drug related offenses are at risk of abuse while
incarcerated. Reports from Vietnam and Cambodia cite examples of women being
beaten and raped in compulsory drug ‘treatment’ centres, which in reality are
detention facilities.21,22
This type of abuse
has been reported to come from prison guards and others working in the prison.
There is an institutional lack of adequate measures to monitor and deter these
human rights abuses in prison and detention facilities, and often any measures
that are in place are gender blind.23
Harm reduction and drug treatment
Harm reduction is a pragmatic approach that aims to
reduce harms related to drug use. Harm reduction approaches encompass a variety
of services and practices in response to drug users needs, including clean
syringe exchanges to prevent the spread of blood borne viruses, condom
distribution to decrease the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases,
testing for blood borne diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C, and drug
treatment options including but not limited to opioid substitution therapy or
complete abstinence. Whilst
such approaches have been effective in reducing many harms relating to drug
use, they do not always take into account women’s specific needs. ‘Gender
blind’ programmes create barriers for women trying to access harm reduction
services. For example, some services may not allow children into the centre,
effectively excluding women who have children but no childcare. Pregnant women and
mothers who use drugs experience additional stigma, due to societal fears24 about the harm drugs can have on a foetus, and
assumptions that women cannot adequately care for their children. Health and
social services that work with mothers who use drugs may report women’s drug
use to social services, and as a result children may be taken from their
mothers and placed in foster care.25 While the health impacts of drug use on a woman and
her baby should not be ignored, such assumptions about pregnant women who use
drugs discourage women from seeking out harm reduction and drug treatment
services.26 This may lead to unsafe practices of
drug consumption with negative consequences for both women and their children.27 Even when harm reduction and drug treatment options are
available for pregnant women, the fear and reality of negative judgement can
still be enough to divert wom en from receiving prenatal care.28 Examples of good practice include practicalities such
as flexible opening hours, childcare facilities, women-only clinics, and
confidential HIV and hepatitis C testing.29
Making gender matter: policy based recommendations
• Gender responsive harm reduction programmes and drug
treatment centres
Drug treatment and harm reduction services must have
specific programmes and resources that respond to the needs of women who access
harm reduction programmes and drug treatment centres, alongside standard
services.
• Stop criminalising mothers
Responses to pregnant women who use drugs should be
concerned with promoting health rather than criminalisation. Policies should
aim to provide a range of supports for women who use drugs and have children in
order to decrease harm for everyone involved. This includes education for
professionals that interact with pregnant and parenting women who use drugs i n
order to reduce stigma.
• Alternatives to custody for women incarcerated
for drug related offences
In the case of drug possession, public health
responses should be adopted. Courts should, where possible, consider the
applicability of non-custodial sentences. Where there is a strong case for
imprisonment, policies should support visits for children and family. Such
considerations need additional coordination of resources for foreign national
women who are imprisoned.
• Involve women’s issues in the United Nations
General Assembly Special Session 2016 (UNGASS)
This meeting is crucial for reviewing, debating and
hopefully changing archaic and punitive international drug policies that have
proven to be ineffective worldwide. A reform to the U.N. conventions and the
creation of policies that take the above issues into consideration will result
in a more equitable international framework.
• Incorporate gender sensitivity into all aspects
drug policy and drug related programmes and services
Developing
a gender sensitive approach, sometimes referred to as gender mainstreaming,
involves implementing indicators and monitoring in the design, delivery and
evaluation of a given project, strategy or policy. A gender sensitive approach
should be used to adequately address to the lived realities of those affected
by the drug trade through appropriate responses in local, national and
international services and policies.Endnotes
1 B. Stevenson (2011) Policy, criminal justice and mass imprisonment.
Working paper prepared for the first meeting of the commission Geneva.
Global Commission on Drug Policies.
http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/wp-content/themes/
gcdp_v1/pdf/Global_Com_Bryan_Stevenson.pdf
2 European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (2014) European
Drug Report 2014: Trends and Developments. Luxembourg: Publications Office
of the European Union.
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/edr/trends-developments/2014
3 F. Measham (2003) ‘The gendering of drug use and the absence of
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4 J. Ward (2010) Flashback: Drugs and Dealing in the Golden Age of the
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5 F. Measham (2002) “Doing gender” – “doing drugs”: conceptualizing the
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6 L. Maher (1998) Sexed Work: Gender race and resistance in a Brooklyn
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7 S. Pinkham, B. Myers and C. Stoicescu (2012) Chapter 3.1: Developing
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12 J. Fleetwood (2014) Drug mules; women in the international cocaine
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13 United Nations Office of Drug Control (1998) Alternative Development
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14 M. Melis & M. Nougier (2010) Drug policy and development: How
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22 Human Rights Watch (2013) “They treat us like animals”
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25 C. Stengel (2014) The risk of being ‘too honest’: drug use, stigma and pregnancy, Health, Risk & Society 16(1): 36—50.
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Global Drug Policy Observatory
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