Advancing the Prevention of Substance Abuse via Translational Research

Estimates of the total costs of substance abuse in the United States, including productivity and healthand crime-related costs, exceed $600 billion annually (approximately $181 billion for illicit drugs, $193 billion for tobacco, and $235 billion for alcohol). Twenty-five percent of all US deaths can be attributed to drug abuse. Alcohol, the most commonly used drug among American teenagers, kills youth 6.5 times more often than other drugs of abuse. In general, a yearly death toll of nearly 10,000 can be attributed to chronic alcohol abuse. Drug consumption of all types generally begins in adolescence; by 13 years of age more than 30% of teens report having used at least one illicit substance. As staggering as these numbers are, they do not fully describe the breadth of corollary destructive public health and safety implications, such as family disintegration, loss of employment, failure in school, domestic violence, and child abuse.