Coalition Of Neighborhood Councils

A War On Drugs, But Only A Murmur On Booze

Aug 26, 1998

As I'm sure you all know, the government has been waging a war against illegal drugs and has spent $1 billion dollars during the last five years of taxpayer money on a media blitz consisting of public service announcements. Yes, illegal drugs are a major problem in America, yet here are some facts you may not know concerning legal drugs.

Every day, on average, 11,318 American young people (12 to 20 years of age) try alcohol for the first time, 6,488 try marijuana for the first time, 2,786 try cocaine for the first time and 386 try heroin for the first time.

Alcohol is a factor in three leading causes of death for 15 to 24 year olds. Two to three times as many teenagers and young adults die in alcohol-related traffic crashes as do from illegal drugs.

While 2 percent of high school students used heroin last year, 31 percent of 12th graders admitted to having been intoxicated one or more times in the month before the annual University of Michigan "Monitoring the Future" study. Binge drinking (consuming five or more drinks in a row) was reported by 31.3 percent of high school seniors, 25.1 percent of 10th graders, and 14.5 percent of eighth graders.

Illegal drugs kill about 14,000 people a year at an annual cost to taxpayers of about $70 billion dollars. Three-quarters of the expense is related to crime and law enforcement; one-quarter is health-related.

Alcohol kills about 100,000 people annually at a cost to taxpayers of about $99 billion dollars a year. Eighty percent of this cost is health-related. Nearly 2,000 Americans were killed by teenage drunken drivers last year.

If Congress had to fund this experiment, it should have centered on