The Impact of Drugs on the Economy (Pending Publication)

The Impact of Drugs on the Economy (Pending Publication)

While only 8.7% of all Americans face drug abuse, more than $193 billion is spent through treatments and judicial systems. Red Ribbon Week celebrates an anti-drug campaign across the nation that spreads awareness of the constant struggle of drug abuse. Statistically, the use of Red Ribbon Week helps prevent drug use; it also raises a generalized message of awareness that would be lost otherwise.

Marijuana – The Most Commonly-Used Drug in America

While scientists cannot give an exact number, deductive reasoning and generalized surveys say that about 18 million people in the U.S. use marijuana. Cannabis, while slowly being promoted as legal, opens a gateway to other drugs such as heroin, crack and cocaine for users.

In addition to being the most used drug, it also has the highest statistical ratio of frequent user to occasional user. More than 13 million people frequently ingest or inhale cannabis in one of its forms, while only 6.3 million users use it occasionally. No other drug has a 200% increase in frequent users than occasional users.

Cocaine – The Most Costliest-Used Drug in America

While marijuana stands as the most used drug, cocaine users spend the most money on their drugs. Standing at an astounding $38 billion spent annually, cocaine beats marijuana by $4 billion.

As a standalone pricing, if all proceeds spent toward cocaine were to go into a fund,Americans could end world hunger and prevent it from happening ever again. Even more, $8 billion would still remain leftover to recover most of America from debt. Proceeds from cocaine alone could do all of this – imagine what America could do with the other $155 billion.

Raising Awareness Through Red Ribbon Week

While these statistics are astonishing to many and led to the uprising of Red Ribbon Week, how does this information really change drug use?

Red Ribbon Week celebrates anti-drug usage and spreads as a national campaign throughout a majority of school districts. Schools believe that the youth are more susceptible to drug use and, ultimately, incur the majority of the influence. It’s believed that when parents and teachers raise awareness to their teenagers about drug use, they become 42-percent less likely to do drugs.

While this can largely reduce the overall drug use in America, only one-fourth of teenagers actually engage in conversations with an adult, especially parents, about drug use. Parents are afraid to discuss drug use with their children, assuming their children will be more susceptible to drug use if they talk about it.

However, while not talking about it may shelter young children, teenagers do not yield the same result. Whether drugs are discussed with teenagers or not, many kids will learn about drugs early and they experience a tremendous amount of peer pressure in high school.

Schools have taken it upon themselves to notify kids of the dangers with drugs in hopes that future generations will incur a significantly less amount of drug use. The video below shows why we, as American citizens, should be fighting drug abuse.