[Australia] The Real cost of drugs / The Australian [Gotcha blog], 23 April 2007
http://digbig.com/4sqts
Gary Hughes
"The day after John Howard announced his $150 million package to help tackle the growing problems of “Ice” addiction, two things have helped put the extra spending (which is comprised of just under $40 million a year for four years) into perspective. The Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation released a new research report putting the cost to Australian business of illicit drug use at $3.3 billion a year. And the Australian Federal Police announced it had seized in a single operation 113kgs of MDMA (ecstasy) powder in Sydney worth about $37 million on the street – the equivalent of almost an entire year of the extra spending on preventing drugs announced by the PM. While the extra spending has been widely welcomed, it clearly is only a drop in the ocean."