THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL DRUG POLICY ON WOMEN Shifting The Needle.

The international strategy of criminalising the cultivation, manufacture,distribution and use of certain psychoactive substances hasfailed to achieve a 'drug free world'. Examining the impact ofdrug criminalisation and enforcement on a previously overlookeddemographic, this edited collection argues that women are negativelyand disproportionately affected by this flawed policy approach.Addressing the lack of attention on the experience of women, thiscollection details the challenges women face in accessing appropriatetreatment and services, the stigmatisation and marginalisation resultingfrom engagement in illegal drug markets, the violence that womenare exposed to, and the punitive sentences imposed on women fordrug related offences. Bringing together an international group ofacademics, advocates, activists and those with lived experience, theeditors offer a rounded and realistic view from women's perspectives.In doing so, they facilitate a call for feminist and women's organisationsto embrace drug policy reform, and for international and national leveldrug control authorities to better engage women as stakeholders.