Chemical Addiction - The Cost to Society
It is estimated that the direct and indirect cost of alcohol and drug abuse in 1997 was $294.2 billion.
For both alcohol and drug abuse, spending on treatment represents only about five percent of the total cost to society. More than half of the estimated costs of drug abuse are associated with drug-related crime. These costs included lost productivity of victims and incarcerated perpetrators of drug-related crime (20.4 percent); lost legitimate production due to drug-related crime careers (19.7 percent); and other costs of drug-related crime, including Federal drug traffic control, property damage, and police, legal, and corrections services (18.4 percent)...
Much of the economic burden of alcohol and drug problems falls on the population that does not abuse alcohol and drugs. These costs include drug and alcohol related crimes and trauma (e.g., motor vehicle crashes); government services, such as criminal justice and highway safety; and various social insurance mechanisms, such as private and public health insurance, life insurance, tax payments, pensions, and social welfare insurance.
The costs primarily born by abusers include: lost legitimate earnings related to impaired functioning in the labor market; lost legitimate earnings related to incarceration; and foregone legitimate earnings when drug abusers pursue income through illegitimate means, including predatory and consensual income-generating crime (e.g., theft, drug trafficking, and prostitution).
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) conducted a study to determine how much money is spent on illegal drugs that otherwise would support legitimate spending or savings by the user in the overall economy. ONDCP found that, between 1988 and 1995, Americans spent $57.3 billion on drugs, broken down as follows: $38 billion on cocaine, $9.6 billion on heroin, $7 billion on marijuana, and $2.7 billion on other illegal drugs and on the misuse of legal drugs.
(taken from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and a report titled National Estimates of Expenditures for Substance Abuse Treatment, 1997)
