Drug abuse inflicts immeasurable harm on public
health and safety around the USA each year, and threat-
ens the peaceful development and smooth functioning of
many societies. It also impacts in our economy:-
- A person’s health is greatly aected by drug abuse.
Economically, this manifests itself in prevention and treatment
costs, health-care and hospital costs, increased morbidity and
mortality.
- Beyond health costs, people under the influence of drugs pose
major safety risks and costs to people around them and the
environment. For example, drug-affected driving accidents have
emerged as a major global threat in recent years.
- Studies show that overall, drug-related crime is costly. In the
United States it is estimated that drug-related crime costs $61
billion annually.
- A further cost of drug abuse that is often cited is the loss in
productivity that can occur when drug users are under the influence
of drugs or are experiencing the consequences of their drug use.
Studies have put the costs of lost productivity borne by employers
at tens of billions of dollars.