Incarcerated Women and Drug Abuse: an International Perspective

The climate of domestic drug policy in the United States as it pertains to both women and men at the beginning of the 21 st century is the criminalization mode of regulation—a mode that is based on the model of addiction as a crime and one that is used to prohibit the use of currently illegal drugs. In Canada, drug policy is based mainly on the harm reduction model, a policy or program directed towards decreasing the adverse health, social, and economic consequences of drug abuse without requiring abstinence from such use. As a response to the problem of drug abuse, the United States national drug policies have emphasized punishment over treatment and, as argued in this paper, have had a disproportionate impact on women. Using a comparative analysis between these two societies, this paper considers the ramifications of these two regulatory modes through women's perspectives. This paper seeks an answer to the question: ―Using an international perspective (i.e., Canada and the United States), is American drug policy directed toward women who abuse drugs a miscarriage of justice?‖ Incarcerated Women and Drug Abuse: An International Perspective he criminalization mode of regulation—a mode that is based on the model of addiction as a crime is the domestic drug policy in the United States. Such a mode of regulation entails tough enforcement, and is the centerpiece of American drug policy in terms of rhetoric, budget, and substance (Boyum & Reuter, 2005). Drug policy in Canada is based mainly on a harm reduction model that operates with the assumption that some people who engage in high-risk behaviors are unwilling or unable to abstain. Rather than having abstinence goals set for them, clients in such programs take part in a goal-setting process, an approach that has been shown to correlate consistently with retention and success (Sobell, Sobell, Bogardis, Leo, & Skinner, 1992). Using a comparative analysis between these two societies, this paper considers the ramifications of these two regulatory modes through women's perspectives, thus combining my two interests, drug policies and women who are addicted to drugs. I begin with an overview of the problem and significance of women's drug abuse in both the United States and Canada. I then continue with a discussion of the two modalities as they relate to women’s experiences: the criminalization model and the harm reduction model. I conclude by arguing in opposition to the criminalization model T