Doubly Deviant? Women Drug Injectors and their Use of Drug Problem Services

Despite evidence both for high rates of problem drug use among women and for the greater damage done to women by drug misuse, men outnumber women in the use of the problem drug services in Scotland by 2.8:1 (Scottish Drugs Forum, 1994). Moreover, accounts of drug use and policy responses frequently discuss the ‘drug user’ with no reference to gender (Robertson, 1988; Strang and Stimson, 1990; Evans, Sandberg and Watson, 1992). The drug user referred to is, often by implication, male. Alternatively it is assumed that the experience of women is no different to that of males. Thus the specific patterns of women’s drug use and the problems inherent in supplying services for this category of need remain neglected.