Economics

Prohibitions [November 2007]

Monograph # 14 Working estimates of the social costs per gram and per user for cannabis, cocaine, opiates and amphetamines [February 2007]

1. social costs per drug user by drug type; and

2. social costs per kilogram (or gram) for each drug type.

The economics of preventing drug use:An introduction to the issues [2007]

Economic evaluation offers the opportunity for planners of drug prevention policy and services to be more efficient with, and to prioritise, the finite resources available for implementation. This document provides an overview of the health economics of drug prevention and discusses different methods of conducting such analyses. 35-page PDF [National Collaborating Centre for Drug Prevention, UK]

Monograph #8 A review of approaches to studying illicit drug markets [December 2005]

Economic Benefits of Drug Treatment [February 2005]

A Critical Review of the Evidence for Policy Makers February 2005 [Treatment Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania]

Illicit Drug Markets and Economic Irregularities [January 2005]

This paper sketches examples of an alternative reaction, focusing on idiosyncrasies of drug markets that might plausibly create counter-intuitive effects, including supply curves that slope downward because of enforcement swamping and/or a good serving as the only available store of wealth for its producer, demand reduction programs that increase demand, and consumption by “jugglers” possibly increasing rather than decreasing as prices rise. This analysis yields non-obvious policy recommendations; for example, source country control programs should concentrate on growing regions with a healthy banking sector

Jonathan P. Caulkins, Peter Reuter

Carnegie Mellon, Heinz School 2005-7, Jan 2005

Price and Purity Analysis for Illicit Drug: Data and Conceptual Issues [January 2005]

This paper reviews data and conceptual issues that people producing, analyzing, and consuming drug price and purity series should understand in order to reduce the likelihood of misinterpretation. It also identifies aspects of drug markets that are both poorly understood and relevant to some of these issues. They constitute a useful research agenda for health and law enforcement communities who would benefit from better data on the supply, availability, and use of illicit drugs

Jonathan P. Caulkins

Carnegie Mellon, Heinz School 2005-6, Jan 2005

Calculating the Social Cost of Illicit Drugs

Pompidou Group, Council Of Europe

Public expenditure

The folLowing 8 reports are all available from this home page at EMCDDA

Public spending on drugs in the European Union during the 1990s - retrospective research

An initial overview (using the information available) of the first comprehensive research carried out at European level on public expenditure [EMCDDA]

Public expenditure on drugs in the EU

Postma, M. (2004).EMCDDA

Public spending on drugs in the European Union during the 1990s, EMCDDA

Retrospective research 2003 [EMCDDA]

The Economic Case For and Against Prison

Are prison sentences really a cost-beneficial way of reducingoffending behaviour in those populations who are at risk of further offending? 20-page PDF [Matrix, UK]

Stabalization and the Price Decline of Illicit Drugs

The main finding of this paper is that the decline in the retail prices of drugs is related to the strong decline in the intermediation margin (the difference between the retail and producer prices) in the drug business. 482KB PDF [CESifo]

Connecting the Dots: ONDCP's (Reluctant) Update on Cocaine Price and Purity

A report by WOLA Senior Associate John Walsh, offering insight and analysis into the data on cocaine price and purity released (quietly) by the Office of National Drug Control Policy [WOLA]

New Study Finds Economic Benefit from Lifelong Methadone Treatment

New model estimates lifetime costs, benefits of drug use and treatment [RTI International, USA]

Economic Evaluation of Hepatitis C

The Australian Government and State and Territory Governments have committed to a variety of harm reduction, prevention and education initiatives in order to mitigate the spread of hepatitis C and other blood borne viruses. About 90% of incident cases of hepatitis C occur amongst injecting drug users (IDUs). This report is an economic evaluation of programs to control the hepatitis C epidemic [The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing]

The Economics of Effective AIDS Treatment

Is the Addiction Concept Useful for Drug Policy?

The development of behavioral economics, with its prospect of integrating insights from economics and psychology, is surely one of the most exciting intellectual developments in the social and behavioral sciences in the past 20 years. And if any domain could benefit from this development, it would seem to be the domain of psychoactive drug use, where choices are so often pathological. Thus, one can imagine my surprise and dismay when I was asked to prepare an essay on new policy insights that might follow from the leading behavioral economic theories of addiction1, and I discovered that there weren’t any. Or at least, hardly any

Robert J. MacCoun

Center for the Study of Law and Society Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program. JSP/Center for the Study of Law and Society Faculty Working Papers. Paper 8 January 1, 2003

Counting the costs of crime in Australia : technical report

The report then discusses in detail the costing of particular crimes, as well as the estimation of other costs, including costs of the criminal justice system, lost productivity of prisoners, victim assistance, the security industry and insurance administration

Pat Mayhew

Australian Institute of Criminology 2003 ISBN 0 642 24273 9; ISSN 1445-7261

The Economic Impact of the Illicit Drug Industry  

Goal of the seminar was to assess the global business volume of the illegal drug industry and to look where the illegal proceeds of the industry are going. Issues discussed included: the size of the illicit drug economy and the flows, investments and collusion of drugs money in the legal economy and its alleged funding of international terrorism

Report TNI Seminar 5-6 December 2003 [Transnational Institute]

Return on Investment in Needle and Syringe Programs in Australia - Report

The study updates and expands a study previously undertaken by Hurley, Jolley and Kaldor which investigated the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of needle and syringe programs in relation to HIV/AIDS

Health Outcomes International Ltd. in association with the National Centre for HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research andPprofessor Michael Drummond, Centre of Health Economics, York University 2002

The economic and social costs of Class A drug use in England and Wales, 2000

Estimates of the economic and social costs of Class A drug use in England and Wales are an important addition to the growing evidence base supporting the Government’s anti-drugs strategy. This information is valuable both for policy makers and for directing future research into what works in reducing illicit drug consumption, not least in terms of crime reduction and value for money

Christine Godfrey Gail Eaton Cynthia McDougall and Anthony Culyer

Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate 2002 ISBN 1 84082 874 9 ISSN 0072 6435

The Economic Impact of the Illicit Drug Industry

In December 2003 the TNI Crime & Globalisation project hosted a seminar on The Economic Impact of the Illicit Drug Industry. The goal of the seminar was to re-view the substance of the existing figures of the global business volume of the illegal drug industry and the notion of where the illegal proceeds of the industry are going. Issues discussed included: the size of the illicit drug economy, money laundering, the flows, investments and presence of drugs money in the legal economy and its alleged funding of international terrorism.

Transnational Institute

The Economic Costs of Drug Abuse in the United States 1992–2002

ONDCP

Counting the cost: estimates of the social costs of drug abuse in Australia 1998-1999

Collins, D.J., Lapsley, H.M., (2002)

International Guidelines for Estimating the Economic Costs of Substances Abuse

Single et Al. (2001) [Word document]

The economic and social costs of class A drug use in England and Wales, 2000

Godfrey, C., Eaton, G. McDougall, C, Culyer, A. (2002) [Home Office, UK]

The Economic Costs of Drug Abuse in the United States 1992-1998

Office of National Drug Control Policy, (2002)

The economic and social costs of Class A drug use in England and Wales, 2000

The main findings from the study provide the first real evidence that costs are mostly associated with problematic drug use and drug-related crime, in particular acquisitive crime. In addition, significant cost consequences are identified for health care services, the criminal justice system and state benefits.

Christine Godfrey Gail Eaton Cynthia McDougall and Anthony Culyer

Home Office Research Study 249

The Economic Costs of Alcohol and Drug Abuse in the United States - 1992-1998

This report was developed for The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) which asked The Lewin Group to calculate more current estimates of the societal cost of drug abuse. In the context of this report, the phrase “drug abuse” is used to refer to consequences of using illicit drugs, as well as societal costs pertaining to the enforcement of drug laws. This study does not address costs related to abuse of or dependence on legal substances that may be termed drugs such as alcohol, tobacco, or prescription medications

Publication Number 190636 ONDCP

Poor Prescription: The Cost of Imprisoning Drug Offenders in the United States.

As America entered the new millennium we culminated the most punishing decade in our nation’s history. While the number of persons in jail and prison grew by 462,006 in the seven decades from 1910 to 1980, in the 1990s alone, the number of jail and prison inmates grew by an estimated 816,965.The cost of this massive growth in incarceration is staggering. Americans will spend nearly $40 billion on prisons and jails in the year 2000. Almost $24 billion of that will go to incarcerate 1.2 million nonviolent offenders.4 Meanwhile, in two of our nation’s largest states, California and New York, the prison budgets outstripped the budgets for higher education during the mid-1990s.

Schiraldi, V., Holman, B., & Beatty, P.

Justice Policy Institute. 2000

The Benefits and Costs of Drug Use Prevention

Clarifying a Cloudy Issue

Research brief RB-6007, 1999 RAND

Are Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentences Cost-Effective?

Research brief, RB-6003, 1997 RAND

Projecting Future Cocaine Use and Evaluating Control Strategies

Each year, the United States spends large sums of money at all levels of government to battle cocaine use. By 1992, this annual sum had reached $13 billion. Is this the most effective way to spend the money?

Research brief RB-6002, 1994 RAND

Keeping Score: The Frailties of the Federal Drug Budget

Total federal government expenditures for antidrug activities have become a centerpiece in the national debate on drug policy ... Given the prominent role that federal budget figures have come to play in the policy debate, it is noteworthy that few have paid any attention to their origins.

Patrick Murphy, issue paper, IP-138, 1994 RAND