The Human Costs of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems
Hurting Children, Families & Quality of Life

Alcohol and other drug problems also take a tremendous toll on families and communities:

• It is estimated that 1 in 4 children in the U.S. is exposed to alcohol abuse and/or dependence in the family at some point before age 18.
• Children in families with substance-abusing parents are at higher risk of alcohol and other drug use and are more likely to have problems with delinquency, poor school performance and emotional difficulties, such as aggression.
• Parental substance abuse accounts for $23 billion in the nation’s child welfare spending.
• Alcohol and other drug abuse are factors in the placement of more than three-quarters of children entering foster care.
• Seventy percent of abused and neglected children have alcohol and/or drug abusing parents.
• Alcohol and other drug abuse is involved in most violent and property crimes, with 80 percent of the nation’s adult inmates and of juvenile arrestees either committing their offenses while high, stealing to buy drugs, violating alcohol or drug laws, having a history of substance abuse/addiction or sharing some mix of these characteristics.
• One in four deaths each year is attributable to alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use.
• On average, people dying from alcohol-related causes lose 26 years from their normal life expectancy.