White House Office of National Drug Control Policy asked RAND to generate national estimates of market sizes for four illicit drugs: cocaine (including crack), heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine (meth). Also, knowing the number of heavy users is important for treatment planning, and calculating total spending on drugs can help estimate the revenues going to criminal organizations inside and outside the country. In order to think sensibly about illicit drug markets, policymakers need to have some idea of the scale of those markets.įor example, knowing whether Americans consume tens, hundreds, or thousands of metric tons of cocaine is critical for understanding the impact of a seizure of three metric tons of the drug at a border crossing. Heroin consumption remained fairly stable throughout the decade, although there is some evidence of an increase in later years.Meth consumption rose sharply from 2000 through the middle of the decade this trend was followed by a steep decline through 2008.These figures are consistent with supply-side indicators, such as seizures. During the same period, marijuana consumption likely increased by more than 30 percent.From 2006 to 2010, the amount of cocaine consumed in the United States declined by about 50 percent - an unprecedented change over five years.Knowing the size of illegal drug markets allows us to estimate revenues going to criminal organizations, make better decisions about treatment and prevention, and evaluate drug policies.
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