---------------------------------------------------------- Drug Users Deaths per Year Deaths per 100,000 ---------------------------------------------------------- Tobacco 60 million 390,000 (a) 650 alcohol 100 million 150,000 (b) 150 Heroin 500,000 400 (c) 80 (400) Cocaine 5 million 200 (c) 4 (20) ----------------------------------------------------------
(a) "Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking:
25 Years of Progress" Surgeon General's Report (1989).
(b) Estimates vary greatly, depending upon whether all health
consequences, or only those traditionally associated with
alcoholism, are considered. The Fifth Special Report to the
U.S. Congress on Alcoholism and Health from the Secretary of
Health and Human Services contains two references indicating
a death toll of 200,000: The report states, first, that alcohol
"plays a role in 10% of all deaths in the United States,"
which comes to about 200,000 deaths each year. P. vi. It further
states that present estimates of the death toll from alcohol
abuse are as high as 93.2 per 100,000. Ibid., p. x. This
ratio translates into a total of about 210,000.
(c) These figures were determined as follows: Drug Abuse Warning
Network (DAWN) heroin and cocaine fatalities for 1984, 1985,
and 1986 were averaged. The number of suicides was subtracted.
The figures were discounted to account for deaths in which
both heroin and cocaine played a role. Since DAWN covers
about one-third of the nation's population but almost all
major urban areas where drug use florishes, totals were doubled
to arrive at yearly estimates of 2,000 for heroin deaths and
1,000 for cocaine deaths. Finally, these figures were dis-
counted by 80 percent in accordance with the analysis presented
in the text.
End