Mr. Gary Broderick:

We sometimes forget that, when discussing drugs, we are generally discussing men. All of our services were set up for men because approximately two thirds to four fifths of service users are men. A point was made about changing the culture, in that, if we stopped viewing addiction services as a generic, big picture and instead looked at specific groups that needed particular attention, our thinking would change. One cannot think about women without thinking much more widely about all of the different issues they are facing. If we are drug focused, then we miss all of the integrated issues – systemic stigmatisation, discrimination and poverty – that are making those drug problems worse. Were we able to attend to women drug users better, it would change the way we provided other services.