Mothers and Illicit Drugs: Transcending the Myths

Abstract

This s'tu6y provides a criticai Ferzizl st analysis of q t a k i t a t i v e dacs regarsing women who use i l l i c i t narcotics in Restern Canada, focusing o a t their opinions regarding r h e law and medical and social service policy and regulat =urns that affect their lives.Specifically, this research brings forward the views of 28 rnsrhers who have used illicit dxugs."heir views concerning medicaP treatment for adult women and their newborn infants, Canadian narcotics laws and the effects of treatments are presented.The study also includes data on t h e role of social.services in relation to intervention and to the apprehension of chilidncen.This study reveals the diverse nature of women who use illicit drugs.The consequences of their illicit drug use were mediated by social status, race, class, ge~lder and social environment, as well as by the law, social services and the medical community.Aside from their status as mothers and their use of illicit drugs, the women interviewed were not PPomcqeneous.This thesis also iBiustrates how the identification and diagnosis of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NASI is mediated by mathexs' race and class.The label NAS is a cultural construct chat serves the medical, social services and legai p~ sf essisns through riskw attributions inferventions serve increased social control or' womefi."High- and a , medical and social service to separate Families and to stigmatize and iii punish botb infant and mother.he importance sf ideologies in shaping drug legislation, policy and practices, particularly in the areas of justlce and familial ideobgy is explored.B y linking the research on reproductive autonomy and mothering with a cxlticaf.analysis of drug use within a historical context, this thesis reveals the social control of women who use illicit drugs against a backdrop of the social control of non-drug using women in Western society.Current social attitudes and subsequent harmful practices such as the erosion of civil liberties of mothers and infants flow directly from the criminalization of specific drugs and the social fictions that separate "goodu and "badn drugs.Social attitudes towards mothers who use iliicit drugs have implications for all women, though First -Nations and poor women are over-represented in terms of medical intervention, arrest and child apprehension.