NCJ Number
154264
Date Published
1992
Length
78 pages
Annotation
building on the Department of Health and Human Services study conducted by the Institute for Health and Aging at the University of California, San Francisco, this study used statistical and economic analyses to project the total economic impact of illegal drugs in the United States for the period 1985- 97.
Abstract
Between 1985 and 1991, the monetary costs of drug abuse to the United States increased from $44 billion to $76 billion. If current trends persist, by 1997 the cost will rise to $150 billion. Both resources expended and the resources lost are included in the economic costs of drug abuse. Money is expended on medical treatment, drug prevention, drug enforcement, and drug traffic control. Productivity is lost when a drug abuser participates in a life of crime or is incarcerated; a drug abuse crime victim is unable to work; and the worker abusing drugs causes quality-control problems, accidents, or other business inefficiencies. An increasing component of the cost is IV drug abusers' premature deaths from AIDS. Research shows that the money expended on drug abuse is used to enforce drug laws and control its traffic; however, according to government studies, the money would be better spent for treatment and prevention. For every $1 spend on treatment, $7 is returned in the form of saved tax dollars and increased productivity. The money invested in prevention (currently only 1 percent of total government spending) would result in extraordinary amounts of money being saved. If spending patterns shifted and more money was spent on drug abuse prevention and treatment, not only would less money have to be spent on enforcement and control, but the overall economic costs of drug abuse in America would decrease. 59-item bibliography and extensive graphic and tabular data