WOMEN AND DRUGS: A GROWING PROBLEM

Drug Addiction is becoming more of a problem for women and girls,
while funding sources for drug treatment programs are drying up. The
models for successful programs are out there-but they need to be made
available to more women. At the height of the crack epidemic, the
plight of drug addicted mothers and their neglected and drug-exposed
children inspired an increase in the public funding of substance
abuse programs for women. Since crack abuse has subsided, the funding
for these programs has fallen off.

Unfortunately, the need has increased as the number of women and girls
addicted to drugs continues to rise, with devastating effects on the
women, their children, families and communities.

"Keeping Score 1998," a recent report by Drug Strategies, a policy
research institute based in Washington. D.C.. tells the story all too
clearly. It is the first integrated look at the data on women and
substance abuse, the effects on crime, health and health policy. In
most studies, the information about female and male addicts is not
separated.

By several measures, the report found evidence of increased drug abuse
among women and girls. The arrests of women and girls for the sale and
or possession of drugs jumped by 42 percent in 1996. Forty percent of
all nonviolent drug offenders nationwide are women. Emergency room
visits by women with drug related problems jumped 35 percent between
1990 and 1996.

Incredible increase The data regarding girls is even more alarming.
There was an incredible 197 percent increase in the number of drug
arrests for girls between 1991 and 1996.girls are catching up to boys
in the use of Tobacco, alcohol and other drugs.

While women comprised nearly one third of the people in drug treatment
programs in 1996, only 6 percent of the programs offered prenatal care
and 11 per cent provided child care.

As the number of women incarcerated for drug offenses has increased,
so has the number of children they have left behind. An estimated 9
percent end up in foster care. Studies indicate that children of
incarcerated women are at increased risk of drug and alcohol abuse
themselves. It becomes a vicious, hopeless cycle.

Effective programs Walden House, a multi-dimensional drug treatment
program serving the Bay Area, focuses on women who are HIV positive,
providing housing, detoxification, therapy and residential treatment.
San Francisco’s Epiphany Center for Families in Recovery, allows women
to receive drug treatment and remain with their their children.

Women in danger of losing their children because of neglect can see
them at the center during parenting classes and after treatment sessions.

Oakland’s Solid Foundation Mandela House Program was not on the list
but incorporates many of the strategies and characteristics of the
listed programs. The three residential programs house 34 women and
their children. The program boasts an 80 percent success rate.

Minnie Thomas, the founder and director of the program, says the key
is in a highly structured program.

"The women don’t go anywhere alone for the first six months," she
said. "They have to be willing to do. If not, they that can leave
anytime. We don’t lock the doors. They have to be committed."

After-care is also key. Every Monday, a staff member checks on the
graduates of the program to make sure they are clean and sober.
Several staff members are graduates themselves.

"Just last night I got a cal graduate telling me she had four years of
sobriety. She had celebrated four years of sobriety." She’s married,
has a child and is buying a house," Thomas said."and it took her three

times in the program to get it right."

Thomas said all her programs is the ability to expand to help more
women. "We could triple the number," she said.

Thomas and others who run successful programs know what works in
treating drug addiction in women. "We could triple the number," she
said.