The issue of the cost to the economy of drug abuse was addressed in the report on the national drugs strategy, Building on Experience – National Drugs Strategy 2001-2008. The report emphasised that the cost of drug misuse at a societal level is extremely difficult to quantify as it encompasses areas like the public health costs of disease associated with drug dependence, the cost of acquisitive crime and associated losses and insurance costs which are borne by both business and individuals. The level of State spending on drugs-related issues is also difficult to estimate and is complicated by the fact that expenditure is spread across a number of Government Departments, local authorities, agencies and other statutory organisations.
Even within Departments and agencies, it is difficult to arrive at an accurate estimate of costs associated specifically with drug misuse as services such as the Garda Síochána, the Prisons Service, the Courts and probation and welfare services, and the various health agencies, deal with drugs issues as part of their wider daily services.
Bearing these limiting factors in mind, the report on the National Drugs Strategy 2001-2008 estimated that the development, co-ordination and delivery of the four pillars – supply reduction, prevention, treatment and research – that make up the strategy approximated to £144 million in 2000. This figure is broken down by Departments and agencies in the following table: