In October 2013, the Association HOPS – Healthy Options Skopje and the Coalition „Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities” published the first issue of the journal Drugs – Policies and Practices. Today we are promoting the 8 issue of the magazine, dedicated to “Women’s Voice For effective programs for women who use drugs.”
Yes, that’s right, as strange as it might sound, women also use drugs. They have used drugs in the past too. At least as far in the past as current research allows us to investigate. The only difference was that they were forced to hide better due to the predominant values, more tolerant towards men. While drug use has been a bitter topic for decades, discussion of women using drugs was apprehensively introduced to the public some twenty years ago. However, it was not until the past few years that more and more people gathered the courage to loudly and openly speak about what women who use drugs need. Why is that? Because gender aspects are biologically, but also culturally determined. Because women who use drugs face different challenges than men who use drugs, hence the different needs.
