Identifying alcohol and drug related harms and appropriate treatment pathways for women

Annually, drugs cost society over £19 billion (Black, 2020), and recent years have seen increasing numbers of drug-related deaths (Rae et al, 2022). Alcohol costs a further £14.5 billion in government expenditure to address related issues (Petticrew et al, 2018). Violence associated to the drugs market is apparent (Black, 2020) and alcohol related violence in the night-time economy presents challenges for police and emergency services (McGuire, Evans and Kane, 2021). As such, there is a clear business case for preventing and reducing drug and alcohol related harms. The government Harm to Hope drug strategy includes financial uplift to support frontline commissioned services, but seemingly overlooks women’s needs (Page, Bratt and Oldfield, 2023), which are not met sufficiently in practice (Whitehead, Page, Jeffrey and McCormack, 2023). Drawing on our recent research regarding women’s lived experiences of drug and alcohol treatment, this article reflects on criminal justice engagement. Gender inequalities within the criminal justice system has a long history, with prejudice from women being perceived as ‘doubly deviant’ for breaking gender norms (Page, Bratt and Oldfield, 2023) and our recent research indicates more work needs to be done to address women’s experiences.