Drug and alcohol use causes American taxpayers an annual $740 billion dollars from cost related to crime, loss of work and health care. Excessive alcohol use cost our nation $223.5 billion. Prescription abuse will cost us cost $78.5 billion. And when it comes to tobacco, we will end up paying $300 billion per year.
Nicotine and Alcohol Cost Adds Up
Legal drugs often are the cheapest drugs because they are easily obtained. When it comes to smoking a person who is addicted to nicotine can spend thousands of dollars a year on his or her habit. The national average of a pack of cigarettes is $5.51 but can be as expensive as $13 in New York City, according to Fox News. On average a regular smoker smoke a pack of cigarettes in a day. Thus, even if you are in the state with the cheapest prices for cigarettes which is $5.25 in Missouri the annual cost of smoking will be $1916.25 a year. The other legal drug is alcohol, which also costs the average user thousands of dollars per year. If a person were to drink a 6 pack of beer, averaging about $9 a day, they would end up spending around $3,300 annually, I think we can double, triple, or quadruple the cost here when discussing real alcoholics. So how do drug addicts and alcoholics manage if cigarettes and beer are over $10,000 annually? I have a short answer for this… THEY DON’T!!
Illegal Drug Costs are Outrageous
Illegal drugs tend to cost more money because they are more dangerous to make and obtain. Furthermore, their pricing is not regulated by the government. When it comes to cocaine a gram will cost around $60. This means to maintain a high, an addict can easily spend anywhere from $1,500 to $3,700 a week on cocaine. Flavor Flav, a high-profile rapper in the 90s, told Rolling Stone that he spent $5.7 million dollars in 6 years to support his cocaine addiction. In regards to heroin, a single dose which is 0.1 gram costs $15 to $20 dollars. The estimated cost of a person who is dependent on heroin tends to spend $150 dollars a day on their habit.
“that our lives would become unmanageable”
Unaffordable, unmanageable, insane? Absolutely, but these are just a few of the words that come to mind when it comes to the finances involved with drug use. The second part of step one uses one of those words (unmanageable) to explain the internal condition that addiction creates. As a result of this internal condition, things on the outside, including relationships and finances start to deteriorate.
Addiction is Still on the Rise
Unfortunately, drug and alcohol abuse in the United States are somehow rapidly rising, despite the efforts of many. This will be an issue in this country and throughout the world until the end of time due to the money involved with legal and illegal drugs. The problem is within each individual struggling through the woes of living the fix to fix, drink to drink, one day to the next, addict/alcoholic lifestyle. That way of life is tough to survive, however, Serenity Springs continues to prove it is possible to recover from drug addiction!
STOP PAYING FOR YOUR ADDICTION!
