This work represents a first step in estimating the different social costs associated with different illicit drugs. More specifically, the report sets out in detail the annual costs in Australia (circa 2004) associated with opiates, amphetamines, cocaine, and other illicit drugs separately across two major classes of social costs: health and crime. The cost estimates are further broken down between dependent users and non-dependent users. These are then combined with prevalence and consumption to generate estimates of the:

1. social costs per drug user by drug type; and
2. social costs per kilogram (or gram) for each drug type.