Some Sobering Statistics on Drug and Alcohol Abuse

• Children will be exposed to more than a thousand television commercials promoting drinking each year, and view thousands more television scenes in which alcohol is consumed.
• Children and teenagers are more likely to drink alcohol than all other drugs combined.
• Teenagers who begin drinking before the age of 15 are 400% more likely to become alcoholics than those who wait until the age of 21 to drink.
• In America, underage drinking costs taxpayers almost 60 billion dollars each year.
• About a third of American high school students admit to binge drinking within the last month.
• Drinking alcohol kills almost 5 American college students each day, and young drinkers are 650% more likely to die from alcohol than all other drugs combined.
• A half million children between the ages of 9-12 years are dependent on alcohol.
• Every day more than 11 000 underage drinkers try alcohol for the first time.

• Someone in America is killed every half hour by a drunk driver, and 18 000 Americans will die each year in car accidents involving alcohol.
• Alcohol related accidents are the number one cause of death for teenagers.
• Half of all traffic fatalities involve alcohol.
• In 2001, 25 million Americans admitted to driving under the influence during the past year.
• 77% of fatal crashes that occurred between the hours of midnight and 3 am involved alcohol.
• About 30% of Americans will be experience a car crash involving alcohol during their lifetime.

• Drinking kills 100 000 Americans each year. Causes of death can include cirrhosis of the liver, cancers, heart attacks and drunk driving.
• Between 25% and 40% of all US hospital beds are filled by people receiving treatment related to alcohol use or abuse.
• America spends almost 180 billion dollars in health care expenditures to treat alcohol related disorders each year.
• Alcoholics will on average spend 4 times as long in hospitals as non drinkers.
• Children of alcoholics will spend 62% more time in hospital than children of non drinkers.
• More than 14 million Americans meet the criteria for alcohol abuse, and 18% of Americans will have a drinking problem at some point in their life. Alcoholism affects 43% of families.

• Alcohol is involved in more than 90% of college rapes.
• 75% of spousal assaults involve alcohol.
• 40% of criminals arrested were intoxicated during the commission of the crime.
• In 1996 almost a million and a half people were arrested for drunk driving.
• Alcohol is the most abused drug in America today, and as the statistics grimly indicate, the abuse of alcohol can devastate the abuser as well as the family and community surrounding the alcohol dependent person.
• Although alcohol is the most devastating drug on a national scale, all drug abuse is harmful.

• More than 8% of high school seniors admitted to cocaine use in 2001, and 25% of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 have used cocaine. There are currently 2 million cocaine addicts in America.
• First time offenders convicted of crack cocaine trafficking offenses in federal courts are sentenced to an average of more than 10 years in prison.
• More than half of all drug related emergency room visits are due to cocaine use.

• In 2002, 1.6% of 8^th grade kids admitted to having tried heroin
• 51% of accidental drug deaths are due to heroin use.
• The average heroin addict needs between $150 and $200 daily to support their habit.

• The average age at which youth try marijuana for the first time is 14.
• 25.4 million Americans used marijuana during 2005.
• Almost 78% of people in state prisons had been marijuana users.

• In 2006, 6.5% of 12 graders had used ecstasy at least once.
• Regular users of ecstasy will suffer from lowered levels of Serotonin for at least a year after cessation of use.

• Almost 50 million Americans have used prescription drugs to get high.
• In 2005, almost 70 000 Americans needed professional treatment for pain pill abuse.

• Last year 1.8% of 8^th grade kids used meth amphetamine, and 4.2% used cough medicine with the active ingredient Dextromethorphan (a dissociative hallucinogen in high doses) to get high.
• A 2006 survey of 8^th graders reported that 16.1% had used inhalants at some point to get high.
• Illicit drugs are being used by tens of millions of people each day in America, and although some may be able to use without dependency, too often the end result of casual use is addiction and ultimately despair.

Sites with more up-to-date substance abuse statistics:

• DopeStats.com