ABSTRACT
Rarely in this book has reference been made to gender or even an acknowledgement made that gender is an issue. Obviously, this is not the case – gender is important. For example, Table 1.4 (on p. 9) shows that, of the 40,181 people starting agency episodes in the six months ending 31 March 2001, 29,669 were men and 10,512 were women (or about 25% of them were female). The ages at which women begin drug use are similar to those of men, the peak age group being the early to mid-20s. The drugs taken are also similar – although some American studies show that women are particularly fond of cocaine. However, Edna Oppenheimer (1991: 38) notes that the ratio of women to men coming to treatment in Britain is about 1 in 3. If this reflects the numbers using drugs generally, then probably about 25% of drug takers are women.
