NCJ Number
161658
Date Published
1995
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This paper examines patterns of legal and illegal drug use by women in Germany, as well as treatment techniques used with women drug abusers.
Abstract
The first section of the paper summarizes consumer statistics on women's use of alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, and a number of other mostly stimulating substances used by women in Germany, as well as prescription drugs such as tranquilizers, sleeping pills, and strong pain killers. The findings show that in all Western European countries, the number of women who became consumers of legal drugs such as alcoholic beverages and tobacco increased significantly between the 1950's and the 1970's. The number of women with alcohol problems is approximately one-fourth to one-third that of men, and the women cope with it in different ways. Compared to men, women buy more over-the-counter medications, and more women are on prescription for drugs with psychotropic properties such as tranquilizers, sleeping pills, antidepressants, and pain killers. Regarding illegal drug use, a study of the "drug supermarket" in Frankfurt showed that 30 percent of the regular users were women, with their mean age being 26.6 years. Data support the assumption that more women than men stop drug use without much help from drug treatment institutions. At least half of the women who quit have never gone to drug counseling or treatment centers. Neither have they encountered the police. Better help for women in treatment for drug dependency could be provided if there were treatment centers for women only, since such centers could focus on the particular problems of women addicts, including the establishment of networks for dependent women who are pregnant or have small children. 64 references