What Are Drug Abuse Statistics You Should Know About

Drug abuse is a serious matter, yet many people are unaware of the toll it takes on society. Here are the drug abuse statistics everyone should know, detailing how frequently drugs are used and how they affect individuals, families and communities:

General Drug Abuse Facts

• Nearly 4.6 million people worldwide visited the emergency room as a result of drug use in 2009. (Center for Disease Control)
• Costs associated with substance abuse exceeded $190 billion in 2015: $40 billion is spent on legal costs and the war on drugs, $20 billion on health care and $130 billion on lost productivity. (National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence)
• In the past, most deaths resulting from overdose occurred in African-American inner-city neighborhoods. This trend shifted in recent years to white rural areas. (CDC)
• Addiction is considered a mental illness because it changes the brain in ways that shift compulsive behaviors. (National Institute on Drug Abuse)

As drug abuse statistics indicate, substance abuse is a problem affecting millions of Americans. 

Alcohol

Many people mistakenly assume alcohol is a stimulant, but it's actually a depressant that is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream and affects every organ in the body.

• Alcohol abuse costs the nation $25 billion annually in health care expenses. (NIDA)
• In 2014, 88 percent of American adults admitted to drinking alcohol at some point. Fifty-seven percent admitted to drinking in the past month, and 25 percent reported binge drinking during the same timeframe. (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism)
• Nearly twice as many men abuse alcohol as women - 10.6 million to 5.7 million. (NIAAA)
• Still, 90 percent of people who binge drink are not considered alcoholics or alcohol dependent. (CDC)
• Alcohol abuse is the nation's fourth-leading preventable cause of death, killing approximately 88,000 people each year. (NIAAA)
• In 2014, Americans driving under the influence claimed 9,967 lives, comprising 31 percent of all driving-related deaths.
• Binge drinking is most common among individuals ages 18 to 34. It's also more common among people with household incomes of $75,000 or greater. (CDC)
• People ages 12 to 20 drink 11 percent of all the alcohol consumed in the U.S. (CDC)
• Approximately 189,000 underage drinkers visited the emergency room for alcohol-related conditions in 2010. (CDC)

Amphetamines (Adderall) and Methylphenidate (Ritalin)

Both Adderall and Ritalin are prescribed to combat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Because they are often given to children and increase both focus and productivity, both are commonly abused.

• Ritalin is one of the top-10 stolen prescription medications in the U.S. (Addiction Hope)
• Between 1.6 and 3.4 percent of students between grades 8 and 12 abuse Ritalin. (Addiction Hope)
• As of 2011, 11 percent of children ages 4 to 17 were diagnosed with ADHD. (NIDA)

Cocaine

Cocaine is a stimulant made from coca plant leaves. Although taking cocaine recreationally is illegal, the drug has valid medical uses as a local anesthetic.

• Twenty-five percent of Americans between ages 26 and 34 have used cocaine at one point. (Rehab International)
• Four percent of Americans used cocaine by the time they graduated high school. (NIDA)
• In 2014, 913,000 Americans met the criteria for cocaine abuse, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. (NIDA)
• In 2011, 505,224 of near-1.3 million drug-related hospital visits resulted from cocaine use. (NIDA)
• People addicted to cocaine are 15 times more likely to be addicted to heroin.
• According to a report from 1988 - the latest of its kind - 300,000 infants were born addicted to cocaine as a result of their mother's drug abuse. (Rehab International)

Heroin

Heroin is an illegal opioid made from morphine.

• Heroin-related overdose deaths quadrupled between 2002 and 2013. (CDC)
• In 2014, 10,574 opioid-related deaths were from heroin use. (CDC)
• Most heroin users also take at least three other drugs. (CDC)
• To combat the sharp uptake in heroin and prescription opiate abuse, the White House introduced a plan to spend $2.5 billion to combat heroin drug trafficking. (Reuters)
• According to the White House, the most at-risk regions are Appalachia, New England, Baltimore, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. (Reuters)
• Heroin use increased by 50 percent or more among most demographics - across sex, age, income and health insurance coverage - between 2004 and 2011. (CDC)

MDMA

Methylenedioxyamphetamine, commonly referred to as MDMA, ecstasy, X or molly, is similar to both hallucinogens and stimulants. It's commonly taken in clubs and party settings.

• Over 11 million people have experimented with MDMA. (NIDA)
• In the third and fourth quarters of 2003, MDMA was mentioned in 2,221 drug-related hospital cases. (CDC)
• In 2013, 0.004 percent of the workforce tested positive for ecstasy. The year prior, 4,689 people were admitted to a facility for treatment. (NIDA)
• In 2009, 1,038 attempted suicides involved ecstasy (NIDA).
• Although molly refers to the pure form of the drug, the DEA found only 13 percent of the molly it tests contains any traces of MDMA. It's generally mixed with other drugs like synthetic cathiones - also known as bath salts. (NIDA).
• In 2015, nearly 6 percent of high school seniors had tried MDMA during their lifetime. Slightly over 1 percent had done so within a month of the study. (CDC)
• The drug is mostly used among white youth but is slowly becoming popular within non-white communities. (CDC)

Marijuana

Marijuana is one of the most controversial drugs and is often the subject of news stories and policy debates.

• Seventy-eight percent of users first try marijuana between ages 12 and 20. (NIDA)
• Regular heavy marijuana use can cause teens to lose up to 8 IQ points. (NIDA)
• Twenty-three states have legalized marijuana use for medicinal purposes. (The Motley Fool)
• Seventy-six percent of medical professionals worldwide support medicinal marijuana. (The New England Journal of Medicine)
• Ninety-two percent of medicinal marijuana users say the plant successfully alleviated some of their symptoms. (Public Health Institute) 
• As of 2015, 58 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana. (Gallup)

Nicotine/Tobacco

Most tobacco users are actually addicted to nicotine. Although 35 million people try to quit tobacco each year, 85 percent relapse when attempting to refrain on their own.

• Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death and disease among Americans. (CDC)
• Over 1.1 billion people across the globe use tobacco. (Action on Smoking and Health)
• Ninety percent of smokers start before turning 18, and 98 percent start by 26. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
• The lifespan of a smoker is 13 to 14 years shorter than nonsmokers. (HHS)
• Smoking results in 90 percent of lung cancer cases and 80 percent of deaths from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. (HHS)
• Cigarettes kill over 480,000 Americans each year, with 41,000 deaths caused by secondhand smoke. (CDC)
• Approximately 30.7 million Americans smoke daily, and 9.3 million smoke occasionally. (CDC)
• People with a GED are more likely to smoke than those with a different level of education, including people who didn't complete high school. (CDC)
• Four hundred thousand infants are exposed to chemicals from cigarettes before leaving the womb each year. (CDC)
• Mothers who smoke during pregnancy are at a higher risk for delivering early. Their babies are more likely to be born with birth defects or at a low birth weight. (CDC)
• Smoking can cause type 2 diabetes, and the risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked per day. (CDC)

Prescription Opioids

Opioid pain relievers include codeine, morphine, oxycodone and hyrocodone. The latter two are often referred to by the brand names OxyContin and Vicodin.

• Over 15 million people abuse prescription medications. This is more than the number of cocaine, heroin, inhalant and hallucinogenic users combined. (Drug-Free World)
• Prescription meds are the leading cause of death from drug overdoses in America. (Drug-Free World)
• People addicted to prescription pain medications are 40 times more likely to also be addicted to heroin. (CDC)
• Approximately 259 million opioid prescriptions were written in 2012 - enough to give every American adult their own personal bottle. (CDC)
• Nearly 2,500 American teens abuse prescription pain medications for the first time every day. (CDC)
• Southern states prescribe more painkillers than other regions. Tennessee, Alabama, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky had the most prescriptions per person in 2012. (CDC)
• In 2010, the state of Florida implemented measures to regulate pain clinics and prevent health care providers from providing painkillers in their offices. This led to a 50 percent decrease in death from oxycodone overdoses in just two years. (CDC)