What America's Users Spend on Illegal Drugs 1988-2000 - National ...

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Table 10 shows the number of respondents who, according to the NHSDA, used these other drugs between1988 and 1999. To complete the table, estimates for 2000 were set to the 1999 estimate. Those respondentswho admitted use during the year were asked how frequently they used the drug. 51 We then used these datato compute an average number of days a year that the respondents used a drug. 52 Since the survey lacksinformation about the number of doses taken on days that the drug was used, we assumed that each day of useresulted in a single dose. This is most certainly an underestimate.It is difficult to determine prices per dose. Both the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Illegal DrugPrice/Purity Report and the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Community Epidemiology Working Group(CEWG) provided wide ranges. 53 For current purposes, we assumed that each dose costs $5, a price that wasconsistent with those reported by the DEA and the CEWG. These street prices may be too high, however,because many of the legal drugs were likely to have been purchased at prescription prices and diverted toillegal use.To estimate the yearly expenditures on these drugs, we multiplied three factors: the number of users, by theaverage number of doses per year, by the price per dose. Our best estimate is that Americans spent between$2 billion and $3 billion on other drugs each year during the last decade (Table 10).These estimates are imprecise for the reasons noted above. However, even if we halve or double the estimatesto reflect uncertainty, drugs other than cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine must be a relativelysmall part of the total expenditure that Americans make on illicit substances and on legal substances consumedillegally.Conclusion about ConsumptionAccording to estimates based on the prevalence-based procedure, Americans spent about $67 billion on heroin,cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and other illegal drugs in 1999: $36 billion on cocaine, $10 billionon heroin, $11 billion on marijuana, $6 billion on methamphetamine, and $2.6 billion on other illegal drugs(Table 11). Table 11 appears to show a substantial decrease in expenditures on illicit drugs between 1990 and2000. Most of this change is attributable to inflation as reflected in the consumer price index. This decreasemay not be apparent to chronic users, because illicit drug consumption is a predominant part of their marketbasket (illicit drugs are not part of the market basket used to compute the CPI), while the nominal price of28
heroin and cocaine have fallen or remained about the same since 1988, and the price of marijuana has fallensince 1992. On the other hand, these decreased expenditures may have very real consequences for dealers,who probably have market baskets that are much more like that of typical American consumers.29
Page 1: What America’s <
Page 5 and 6: TABLE OF CONTENTSACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..
Page 7 and 8: AcknowledgementsThe authors and sta
Page 9 and 10: Executive SummarySince 1991, the Of
Page 11 and 12: A different kind of comparison was
Page 13 and 14: IntroductionIn 2000, the Office of
Page 15 and 16: An Appendix explains how we used da
Page 17 and 18: Other policy analysts have reported
Page 19 and 20: Trends in Drug UseIf the prevalence
Page 21 and 22: dynamics of emergency room use by c
Page 23 and 24: downward adjustment seems unwarrant
Page 25 and 26: estimation technology at the price
Page 27 and 28: Other studies provide comparable es
Page 29 and 30: areas, computed the number who ente
Page 31 and 32: methamphetamine users in 1993, fewe
Page 33 and 34: percent to about 12 percent. Thus,
Page 35: Total Consumption EstimatesThe fact
Page 39 and 40: Table 11 - Total Expenditures on Il
Page 41 and 42: In 2000, Americans spent about $36
Page 43: into the United States. These targe
Page 46 and 47: equired for several reasons, but th
Page 48 and 49: We used the SRHT findings to adjust
Page 50 and 51: As noted, the ratio between our est
Page 52 and 53: marijuana for 1995. For this purpos
Page 54 and 55: from TEDS-eligible treatment progra
Page 57 and 58: Endnotes1 The calculations reported
Page 59 and 60: 7. A large percentage of heavy drug
Page 61 and 62: number of people needing treatment
Page 63 and 64: and Kleiman’s $8 billion figure.
Page 65: 48. In 1993, about 74 percent of ar

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