On May 26, the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) released this report, estimating that illegal drug use had an economic impact of $193 billion in 2007.  The authors examined the economic impact of illegal drug use on crime, health, and productivity, attributing the primary cost of illegal drug use to lost productivity, at $120.3 billion.  The authors determined that crime and health costs of illegal drug use totaled $61.4 billion and $11.4 billion, respectively.  NDIC also employed an alternate model, under which lost productivity due to incarceration and homicide were treated as crime costs.  Under that model, crime costs totaled $113.3 billion and productivity costs were estimated at $68.4 billion, though the overall total was unchanged.

From the report:

The National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) prepares an annual National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA) that provides federal policymakers and senior officials with a comprehensive appraisal of the danger that trafficking and use of illicit drugs pose to the security of our nation. To expand the scope of its NDTA, and to provide the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and other federal officials with a broad and deep understanding of the full burden that illicit drug use places on our country, NDIC has prepared this assessment— The Economic Impact of Illicit Drug Use on American Society. The assessment is conducted within a Cost of Illness (COI) framework that has guided work of this kind for several decades. As such, it monetizes the consequences of illicit drug use, thereby allowing its impact to be gauged relative to other social problems.

Full Report: The Economic Impact of Illicit Drug Use on American Society (PDF | 4.76 MB)

U.S. Department of Justics. (2011). The economic impact of illicit drug use on American society.