The Governance of Female Drug Users

Abstract

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Narcofeminism: A feminist auto-ethnography on drugs

“…In a prohibitionist world, I have been exposed to violence, been ripped off, have had to deal with the unpredictability of an unstable drug market, and dealt with the physical pain of withdrawal and missed veins. Like other women who use drugs, these experiences forced me to be 'adaptive and resourceful' (Du Rose, 2015). In reflecting on my drug-using career, I am painfully aware that I am one of the lucky ones who survived, but more than that, my life as a woman who uses drugs made me more open, reflective and empathetic as I bore witness to the impacts of drug policy on people's lives, including my own.…”

“…When compared with the wide scholarship on other problematised and pathologised identities such as anorexic subjects, sex workers and transgender women, less feminist work on women who use drugs has been done, though this body has grown and become more influential over recent decades (e.g. Buxton et al, 2020;Campbell, 2000;Du Rose, 2015;Ettorre, 2007;Maher, 1992;Measham, 2002). There is a clear need for feminist discourse to engage in a dialogue with girls and women who have experience of specific and diverse subjectivities, especially given the political aim to 'give voice '.…”