Alice’s experiences resemble those of many of the other women in project FAST, the Female Atlanta Study. Their stories are similar to each other in many ways but different in others. Curiosity and peer pressure led many of these women to experiment with drugs. Others were introduced to drugs by friends, often their boyfriends.

Most women in project FAST tried other drugs before they used crack cocaine. Prostitution frequently was the means through which they supported their crack cocaine habit, but many women also paid for their drugs by participating in the drug business or through “hustles” such as shoplifting,...

Different pathways led the women in project FAST to their current drug-use patterns. Getting into drugs often involved others, typically a close girlfriend, a boyfriend, or a group of friends. Marijuana was the first illicit drug that some of these women used. Others began with snorting cocaine, injecting cocaine and heroin, or immediately smoking crack cocaine. Angel, one of the white women who supported her crack cocaine habit through street prostitution, described hanging out with her friends and smoking her first marijuana as a teenager. At first, she and her friends reserved getting high for special occasions. Within several months,...

The continued use of crack cocaine by the women in this study gave increased prominence to their role as drug users.¹ The low unit price has made this type of cocaine more affordable than cocaine in powder form, and thus available to a larger segment of the population. Prior to crack cocaine, the smallest sales unit of cocaine, typically one-half of a gram, sold for twenty-five dollars. Sold in rock form, however, it can be purchased for as little as five dollars, sometimes even less. Many of the project FAST women, however, soon discovered that a cheap high from crack...

The women in this study had both heterosexual and homosexual relationships, relationships built on love and on pragmatism, long- and short-term relationships, and relationships with both drug users and non-users. Most of the women in project FAST felt that their drug use placed them in a position of social isolation. Mainstream society labeled them as women who deviated from gender-role expectations by engaging in illicit behaviors, including their drug use and the ways in which they supported their habit. Among drug users, they often held marginal positions as well. The stereotype of female crack cocaine users as women who exchange...

Drug use posed major challenges to the women in project FAST, especially regarding their reproductive choices. Most of their pregnancies were unplanned, sometimes even unwanted, and created dilemmas regarding their reproductive options. Several women’s crack cocaine use harmed the fetus before they were even aware of the pregnancy. Many wondered whether to continue the pregnancy or to seek an abortion. They contemplated becoming mothers or giving the child up for adoption. Those few women who planned their pregnancies sometimes were trying to compensate for a child that was taken away by legal authorities or to seek what they saw as...

At the time of their participation in the study, none of the women in project FAST was in drug treatment.¹ However, many had previous treatment experiences, some in every city where they had lived. The Older Struggling Rookies were an exception; none of them ever had been in drug treatment or even considered it. These older, relatively recent initiates to crack cocaine commonly believed that they could quit drugs without professional help. Some considered drug treatment an embarrassment because it would show their lack of self-control.

Two of the Queens of the Scene had had previous drug treatment experiences. Angy,...

Hiv and AIDS were all too familiar to most of the women in this study. The AIDS epidemic either directly or indirectly affected their lives. Many women knew people infected by the virus, some of whom were symptomatic and very sick. Others had lost relatives, friends, or acquaintances to AIDS. This new infectious disease has posed many challenges to the biomedical community.¹ Despite the investment of years of research and millions of dollars, scientists have identified no cure. Recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that the greatest increase in HIV/AIDS now occurs among women, especially...

Violence was a common event in the lives of the women in this study. Many had been abused as children, sometimes physically, sometimes sexually, sometimes both. During their adolescent and adult years, a substantial number of the women in project FAST encountered abuse and violence at home, often from their partners, and in drug-use settings. In addition, the communities in which they resided frequently were characterized by violence. In some cases, the women’s past abuse experiences caused them to engage in behaviors that placed them at risk for HIV infection.

While most of the women in this study were the...

Women like Kate found thinking about the past pointless. Other women became depressed when thinking back. These women’s perspectives on their past, present, and future form the core of the first part of this chapter and are followed by discussions of the impact of the constantly changing drug market on their habits and a look at policy issues and topics for future research.

In general, many of the women in project FAST had mixed feelings about past accomplishments. A number of them described dwelling on the past as a typical middle-class activity, especially common among feminists. Samantha, a Hooker in...