Summary: The Role Of Methamphetamine Abuse In Women

Words: 1389
Pages: 6

War on drugs is “the most influential in the nationwide expansion of the prison population, having particularly impact on women over the past 25 years” (Wormer & Bartollas, 2014). Women are now more likely than men to serve time for drug offenses and are subject to increasingly punitive law enforcement and sentencing practices (Wormer & Bartollas, 2014). Meth is the drug of choice among female inmates. The abuse of methamphetamine has been increasing in the United States since the late 1980s. It is the most popular drug amongst women for 43 percent of the women entering prison (Wormer & Bartollas, 2014).
The use of meth plays a crucial role in the long-term changes of the brain “chronic meth abusers have also revealed severe structural and functional changes in areas of the brain associated with emotion and memory” (Wormer & Bartollas, 2014). Women addicted to meth have many psychosocial stressors that complicate treatment and recovery that men do not. Women with methamphetamine addiction are involved with child welfare agencies due to abuse and neglect of their children. Other risk factors for women addicted to meth include
…show more content…
Heroin use in women has doubled in time. Some of the risk factors associated with heroin for women are prostitution, homelessness and children being taken from homes, “in America, a baby is born dependent on opioids every 19 minutes” (Reuturs). In 2003 Congress passed the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act, that same year about 5,000 drug-dependent babies were born in the United States (Reuturs). These are some of the issues related with heroin and the women who are addicted to it. Hereoin use for women is far more dangerous because women are more likely to engage in fast sexual activity. Such promiscuity can lead to S.T.D’s, unplanned/unwanted pregnancy and a list of emotional problems. Women are also far more likely than men to be introduced to heroin injection by a sexual