Drug-related responses: the costs of actions

Understanding the costs of drug-related actions is an important aspect of policy evaluation. However, the information available on drug-related public expenditure in Europe, at both local and national level, remains sparse and heterogeneous. For the 23 countries that have produced estimates in the past 10 years, drug-related public expenditure is estimated at between 0.01 % and 0.5 % of gross domestic product (GDP).

Spending on demand reduction as a share of the overall drug budget varied substantially across countries, representing between 23 % and 83 % of drug-related public expenditure. While differences are due in part to different policy options and the organisation of public services, the completeness of estimates also has a large impact. In current estimates, drug treatment and other health costs account for a large share of demand reduction expenditure. While the monitoring of expenditure on drug treatment remains the most developed to date, methodological improvements are still required.

Public spending on responses to the drug problem is only part of the cost borne by society in relation to illicit drugs. To this can be added the costs borne by the individual, such as private contributions to medical care, and external costs to society, such as losses of productivity and the financial costs due to premature deaths and illness linked to drug use. Assessment of these wider costs to society may allow resources to be more effectively targeted. In the European countries for which information is available, the social cost of illicit drugs is estimated to be between 0.1 % and 2 % of GDP.