But in a mirror of the docile 50s housewife who was handed weekly housekeeping money by her officebound husband, the dominant man will often control his girlfriend's drug use. She can't argue with him in case she doesn't get her fix that night. He decides when she's going to get her hit and holds it back if she is too sleepy to have sex with him. You very rarely see women dealers, according to Sutton. It's just too dangerous for them and they would be targeted by male gangs.
Men have more drug career opportunities.
Women's options are pretty limited - shoplifting or prostitution. Next thing she knows she's giving him a hand job to cancel the debt and prevent the dealer from breaking her boyfriend's legs, and that's how it starts. With crack use, the lowest point can be hit extremely quickly, Sutton says. Crack is the only drug with which the high and the comedown are almost simultaneous. It stimulates an instant need for sex and once a woman's money has disappeared and her life becomes sex for crack in a crackhouse, there's even less chance of her escaping from the cycle.