Substance abuse and dependence on substances continue to be major health problems in the United States. The abuse of alcohol and drugs costs the nation billions of dollars in health-care costs and reduced or lost productivity each year. Since the mid-1980s, researchers have made estimates of these rising economic costs of substance abuse and dependence in the United States. In 1998, the National Institute on Drug Abuseﾀ and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholismﾀ, which are parts of the National Institutes of Health, released a study on these costs based on 1992 survey data. This article is based on the 1998 report.

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The Extent of the Problem

The economic cost to society from alcohol and drug abuse was $246 billion in 1992. Alcohol abuse...