Género y drogas en Europa: epidemiología y respuestas políticas

A gender perspective has been rarely been applied in a systematic way in the analysis, interventions and policies in the field of Drugs. The drug phenomenon has been often represented as gender neutral, despite the large differences in numbers, risk factors, drug use patterns and consequences. The European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) has been working over the last 20 years on the issue of gender/sex and Drugs, and recently more efforts have been put in the consideration of a gender perspective in drug monitoring. Approximately 33 million women (40%) and 50 million men (60%) have used at least one illicit drug in their lifetime. Women represent approximately 35% of people of use drugs, about a quarter of all people with drug problems and about a fifth of all those entering treatment in Europe. The available interventions that consider a gender perspective are often directed at pregnant women or mothers and sometimes at women who have suffered violence or women in specific groups. Little consideration is given to women in other conditions, other phases of life (e.g., menopause), and to other genders. When gender has been included, it was in a binary perspective. Also, the information available is scarce, despite progress has been made in recent years. The systematic inclusion of a gender perspective in the analysis, planning, implementation and evaluation of interventions in the field of drugs would allow to obtain a more realistic picture of the phenomenon and more effective outcome from available services.