APPENDIX A
SCOPE OF THE U.S. HEROIN PROBLEM
The use of heroin in the United States has reached crisis propor- tions. It is now estimated that there are between 500,000 and 600,000 heroin users in the United States, a substantial increase over the mid-1971 estimate of 315,000 addicted.1
Precise statistics on heroin abuse are difficult to collect. It is, there- fore, likely that there are more addicts than current assessments indi- cate. For example, the White House Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention has stated "that all available data secms to indi- cate that drug abuse in the United States is rising."
In New York City, drug abuse is the largest single cause of death for persons between the ages of 15 and 35. Last year, there was 1,259 confirmed drug-related deaths in that city.2
Heroin is not only a scourge to those who use it-it is also a cancer to the society upon which it feeds.
Reliable estimates indicate that the average addict spends about $30 per day on heroin. Some spend as much as $100 per day.
Roughly, this means that if there are 500,000 addicts spending $30 per day on heroin, the cost per day is $15 million, or approximately $5,475 million per year. If there are 600,000 heroin addicts, the daily cost would be approximately $18 million while the yearly cost would exceed $6,570 million. A large majority must turn to crime to support their habits.
HEROIN ADDICTION AND CRIME IN THE UNITED STATES
In May 1971 Congressmen Morgan F. Murphy and Robert Steele in a report to the Committee on Foreign Affairs stated that:
Reliable authorities estimate that the addict would have to steal goods worth at least four or five times the cost of his habit per year to support that habit.
the cost in crime com- If 75 percent of those addicted resorted to crime * mitted to sustain the habit would be in excess of $8 billion per year at a minimum. Based upon this formula, 500,000 to 600,000 heroin addicts would commit crimes involving property, cash, and other tangibles worth between $16 and $20 billion per year.
HEROIN CONSUMED IN THE UNITED STATES
It is estimated that the heroin addict population in the United States requires from 10 to 12 tons of heroin per year. Since it requires 10 tons of opium to produce 1 ton of heroin, it would only take between 100 and 120 tons of opium to satisfy these needs.
1 The increase in the number estimated is due in part to refined techniques of identifica- tion and detection. It, therefore, should not be construed that the number of addicts doubled during the past year.
The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs announced in December that there was evidence of a heroin shortage in New York City and Washington, D.C., and prices were rising. Such a shortage, however, has not occurred in other major metropolitan
areas.
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