A Qualitative Study of Women in Drug Markets

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Previous studies of illicit drug markets have focused predominately on male sellers or have made nominal gendered analyses of their drug-selling samples. The sparse ethnographic work that exists on women's roles in the drug economy has been based primarily in New York City's low income neighborhood or outside of the United States. The overall aim of this proposed 36-month project is to conduct a qualitative study of women drug sellers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Employing ethnographic sampling techniques, we will recruit 160 participants (40 from each drug group: marijuana, club drugs, heroin, and stimulants) who have sold or exchanged drugs five or more times in the prior six months. A sub-sample of these women will be selected for intensive monthly ethnographic interviews/observations for one year. We intend to interview women involved in drug distribution who are 18 years of age or older and who reside in the San Francisco Bay Area. By extending the study to relatively low level sellers of a number of different drugs, we hope to interview a full range of distributors, from user/sellers to sellers who do not use, from initiates to long term dealers, from sellers who sell one drug only to those who sell other drugs as well, from small scale go-betweens to wholesalers, and from sellers and buyers who are strangers to those who are friends or relatives. Study findings will provide much needed empirical information on women sellers' unique experiences in order to design more effective and appropriate public health initiatives and interventions that are designed to target gender-sensitive and gender-specific risk factors. This project will provide information regarding the impact of gender on distribution practices and personal use patterns and, in turn, the health-related dangers for women who sell drugs. Study results will be published in forms appropriate to three audiences clinicians -- people who work in drug treatment and prevention programs, and social scientists.