Fighting Back: Women and the Impact of Drug Abuse on Families and Communities

Dublin's inner city has had to live with the social and economic damage inflicted by widespread heroin use since the beginning of the 1980s. The introduction of heroin into a community already experiencing high unemployment had a devastating effect on the individuals and families living there. Fighting Back looks at the impact which drug abuse has had on women, their families and communities. The book focuses on women as mothers trying to cope with the problem as it affects their children and extended family, as well as women as community organisers trying to protect and improve their neighbourhoods.

The book shows how women have been energetic and creative actors in responding to these complex problems at local level and how they have developed considerable expertise. But it also argues that much more could be accomplished if their family and community-building efforts were matched by a more robust response from the state. Fighting Back provides an inspirational story of women taking control of their lives, and challenges the government to develop much better support structures for women, men, their families and communities in the battle against drugs.