“The whole nature of an addiction is that it is a disease—the point of treatment is to try to cure that disease. Then you have a well person, a different person. If we want to create well women, how can we deny them help because of a mistake they made while they were sick?” This quote shows the struggle that women suffered through out their life. Society tends to think that women who get involved with drugs are throwing their lives down the drain; we never stop and think that maybe these women are turning to drugs to cope with their lives. They lead a life of struggle, and we cannot judge them because we don’t know the extremes or obstacles they face to break away from this lifestyle. The idea of the ban and restricting these women to cash assistance or food stamps is not solving anything. These women are willing to turn their life around but it is hard to do so with no help. Not only are these restrictions harming the women, but their children too. Most kids are put into foster homes because their mothers can’t afford housing states, other than New Jersey and the few others, need to eliminate the ban and be of assistance to these women and their children. The five recommendations for supporting women are exactly what states need to invest in rather than ignoring the people begging for help. The women that were interviewed for the case study all seem to have these instances in common, physically or sexually abuse in their relationship and or childhood, multiple injuries such as shootings or stabbings, prostitution and or being raped on the streets by strangers. This pattern shows that these women turned to drugs to cope with the abuse and suffering majority of them have been enduring since adolescence.
The idea that there is a case study questioning women demonstrates the differences for why male and females turn to drugs. What I’ve noticed was most of the women had an issue with abuse, rape and injuries because of men. As we’ve discussed in many other topics women are inferior to men, and women instead of sticking up for themselves and breaking away from this lifestyle turn to drugs or prostitution. Whether it’s a father, a boyfriend a husband these women are being physically, verbally, sexually and mentally abused. This raises the question of why men turn to drugs? By the standards of society we cannot assume that it is the abuse that men endure from women, because although it happens it is in the minority. These women, for the most part, were not raised into supportive families are they are seeking someone to care for them. That’s why some women turn to prostitution, for that sense of love and comfort and at the same time receive either money or drugs. Imprisoning women who are convicted for 5 or 10 dollars worth of drugs is barbaric, although they should be put on parole and be provided assistance and clinics doesn’t mean their rights and family should be taken away.
These women self mediate themselves just to survive a life that should be full of opportunity. “The world was never a safe place for them.” After been abused and betrayed by different men, who are they to trust? The will hold this weight their whole lives they want a sense of hope and recovery, but how will they get that if states ban them from assistance. It makes me wonder, we’ve discussed so many instances in class where women are seen as inferior to men even in some instances today, so why not help the women who are struggling and want to get their lives on the right track. There are trying to do the right thing, they just need help.
