Drug Treatment Centers understand full well the ramifications of drug abuse on their drug addiction treatment patients. While the main concern of drug treatment centers is patient care and helping those in drug addiction treatment to recover from their disease, researchers from drug treatment centers are compiling statistics from such organizations as the National Institute on Drug Abuse to bring awareness to the public concerning how devastating the problem has become on the U.S. economy.
Over the past decade, the amount of patients in drug addiction treatment for drug abuse has skyrocketed, and while many people in the United States do not sympathize with drug addicts, they may be alarmed to know how much the epidemic is hurting the nation’s pocketbook.
The annual cost of substance abuse to the United States is estimated at over $500 billion dollars(Harwood, 2000). Included in this astounding figure are the following numbers: alcohol abuse cost the nation $191.6 billion, tobacco use cost the nation $167.8 billion, and other drug abuse cost the nation $151.4 billion.
Some variables included in the monetary figure compiled by researchers from drug treatment centers regarding the amount of money spent on drug addiction treatment and social issues related to drug abuse are as follows: healthcare expenditures, specialty drug services, productivity losses, death by overdose, criminal justice, private safety, social welfare, and other contributing factors.
