A recent study conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University shows that of the $373.9 billion spent annually to fight the nation's drug problem, less than 2% actually goes toward drug treatment and prevention.  The remainder of this staggering amount of money (paid out by both federal and state government) is going to handle the societal consequences of not making effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation services available to the estimated 25 million substance abusers living within the U.S. borders.

Every untreated addict costs the tax payers of this country astonishing amounts of money.  Costs to try and incarcerate drug offenders; costs in health care services related to addiction, costs in unemployment benefits, disability funding, costs in social services for drug dependent parents and their children,  the spending goes on and on.  When you understand this it is not surprising to know that almost 98% of the federal and state budgets to fight substance abuse are going to handle the social issues facing Americans that are created by a lack of drug and alcohol rehabilitation services.

The C.A.S.A. report further revealed that for every dollar of the $373.9 billion the federal and state government spent on drug prevention and treatment, it cost $59.83 to fund the government and state programs needed to support untreated drug addicts and alcoholics who are in legal trouble, unhealthy or unemployable because of their addiction.  

The consensus of a growing number of treatment professionals seems to be that the recent C.A.S.A. study clearly shows that there must be more financial resources piped towards drug and alcohol treatment and prevention services.  Not doing so will only continue to waste billions more in tax payer money while the numbers of drug addicted people continue to sky rocket out of control.