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. Sue Noot, clinical services coordinator for Thames Gateway NHS Trust Addiction Services, says women-specific issues around drug use have been ignored for too long.
Women tend to get unhealthier more quickly than men.
If they go into rehab and put it back on, they can get very depressed. This is almost never taken into account by services. O'Mara urges the government to listen to women. By choosing drugs, women are going against their socially prescribed role as selfless nurturers. Our behaviour is perceived as selfish, deviant and criminal.