A new generation of drug dealers has emerged in Australia as middle-aged women turn to crime to support their habits.
Women in their 30s and 40s are becoming the new face of dealers on Australia’s streets, with experts saying ‘the stereotypical, unreliable man’ is no longer the norm.
Whitehaven Clinic founder Tabitha Corser said the spike in women dispensing drugs was “astonishing” but often flew under the radar.
One of those women, who asked to remain anonymous, is now preparing to go to prison after being caught supplying the drug she became addicted to to others.
The college-educated business owner said she had a loving family but had been living a double life for a decade when she started using meth at 20 to escape fertility problems, a failed relationship and undiagnosed ADHD.
It wasn’t long before she was purchasing larger quantities of the drug for herself and selling them to others while performing in the community.
Cocaine is a problem for women over 40
Authorities are seeing more and more women in their 30s and 40s being caught dealing drugs in Western Australia
The woman had a good job, access to money and was trustworthy, so people gave her their money so she could buy larger quantities of drugs.
“When I was a daily user, it started to become a question of how to get it without encountering too many dangerous elements or being in a place where you could be caught with it,” she said.
“The people who are like me are very good at hiding their crime because we don’t want anyone to know. We’re not messy, we’re not fighting in the streets, we’re trying to live our lives and find something.” way to numb our pain.
‘It’s everywhere, you’d be so shocked at the people in all professions who use and trade it – doctors, ambulance drivers, nurses, miners.
An addiction expert who has worked in the prison system for decades said the largest group of drug dealers now are women in their 30s and 40s.
Ms Corser’s Whitehaven Clinic specializes in drug rehab and delivers addiction programs in prisons across Western Australia. Ms Corser says the number of female drug dealers has doubled in the past year compared to five years ago, when she first noticed a trend.
“When I started this work 14 years ago, it was 100 percent male drug dealers,” she said.
‘If someone starts dealing drugs, it is often because of their own drug use. No one steps up to become a drug dealer because it’s a great career choice.”
Whitehaven Clinic founder Tabitha Corser says a new generation of women in their 30s and 40s are dealing drugs to support their own drug use and addiction
The number of female drug dealers in Western Australia has doubled in the past five years
Ms Corser said women in their 30s and 40s tended to experience more life crises, which could create a slippery slope for people who used recreational drugs.
“People don’t have coping strategies and the drug use that was recreational is now numbing the pain. It’s not about having fun anymore,” she said.
‘People will use more often and that costs money, so how do they finance that? The next natural step is to distribute the medicines ourselves.’
Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows that meth, alcohol and cocaine are the biggest problems for women over 40.
“The one you would least expect,” Mrs. Corser said.
‘I treat many women in their thirties and forties who have started using drugs to cope with a major life crisis. It then progressed to consistent drug use and eventually to distribution of the drugs by themselves.
‘They are picked up by the police, go to court, are put under house arrest and come to me for rehabilitation before they are sentenced.
‘It’s a slippery slope, from alcohol to recreational drugs. The number of 40-year-old women who use cocaine or meth every day is astonishing.”
AIHW statistics also show that cocaine use in Australia is most prevalent in large cities and high socio-economic areas.
Cocaine use in Australia as a whole is also high, with a 13 percent increase in the past twenty years.