Cultures of Addiction By Jason Lee

the eater to the ‘world where everything is known.’”⁴⁸ The following excerpt from Sabina’s poem “Mazatec Magic Mushroom Ritual Chant” challenges the stereotypes that have been set in place to undermine, devalue, or degrade the female drug user:

I’m a saint woman
I’m a saint woman
I’m a spirit woman
I’m an atmosphere woman…

I’m a waiting woman

I’m a trying woman
I’m a crying woman
I’m a speech woman
I’m a creator woman

I’m a doctor woman
I’m a wise in the way of plants woman

I’m the moon woman
I’m a doctor woman
I’m an interpreter woman…

I’m a clean woman
I’m a ready woman
I’m a Saint Peter woman…⁴⁹

Sabina’s poem, which is chanted under the influence of psychoactive drugs, challenges perceptions of the female drug user as degraded, unclean, and powerless. Instead, the woman described is wise, clean, ready, and knowledgeable.

Re-presenting women’s own accounts of drug use and addiction exemplifies Cixous’s “hopes” for “woman,” a “feminine writing” that will “allow her to carry out the indispensable ruptures and transformations in her history…inscrib[ing] the breath of the whole woman.”⁵⁰