REPORT US DRUG TRADE WORTH $57.3B

WASHINGTONTwothirds of the estimated $57.3 billion that Americans spent
on illegal drugs in 1995 went for cocaine purchases, a report by the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy says.

The report, being released today, said estimated spending on cocaine,
heroin, marijuana and other illicit drugs compared with $57.5 billion in
1994 and continued a downward trend from 1988, the first year of the study.
In that year drug sales were estimated at $91.4 billion. According to the
report, Americans spent $38 billion on cocaine in 1995, $10 billion on
heroin, $7 billion on marijuana and $3 billion on other illegal drugs.

"These billions wasted represent countless opportunities lost," Barry
McCaffrey, director of the office, said in a statement. He noted that the
amount spent on drugs could have bought fouryear college educations for a
million people, or 22 billion gallons of milk to feed undernourished
babies. The social costs of drugs also are compounded by their association
with increased crime, major health problems such as hepatitis and AIDS and
disruptions in family and personal lives, he said.

Since 1988, spending on cocaine and heroin appear to have fallen while
expenditures for marijuana have increased slightly as prices went up and
then decreased slightly as prices dipped. The report noted that the
decrease in cocaine use may have driven down street prices, which fell from
roughly $177 per pure gram in 1988 to $139 in 1995. The report estimated
that in 1989 there was 547 to 660 metric tons of cocaine shipped to the
United States, with 115 metric tons intercepted. In 1995, shipments were in
the range of 421 to 513 metric tons, seizures 98 metric tons.

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