Citizens and Outlaws: The Private Lives and Public Lifestyles of Women in the Illicit Drug Economy

Abstract

This paper utilizes findings from a qualitative study of methamphetamine among users in three U.S. communities: San Francisco, San Diego, and Honolulu. In-depth interviews were combined with survey questionnaires to explore the patterns, contexts, and consequences among an ethnically and culturally diverse sample of 150 moderate to heavy users in each site. A grounded theory method was used to identify and examine patterns of experiences, beliefs, and environments. One of the most important findings emerging from this study concerns the unexpectedly high proportion of women with substantial experience as methamphetamine dealers and/or distributors. More than two-thirds of the 141 female respondent users were involved in diverse lifestyles and participated in the illicit methamphetamine market on a wide variety of levels. However, the majority considered this activity as a positive experience which provided them with economic independence, self-esteem, increased ability to function, professional pride, and ethics. Dealing was seen as supportive in their important need to maintain control: with social and intimate relationships, with daily living responsibilities, and with their drug use. The major problems reported by women dealers across all sites included: arrests and incarceration; violence; lack of trust in, and betrayal by, customers; and social and emotional dependency on the drug to feel normal and function without fear on a social level.