The diagram compares and contrasts data on the changes in the amount of money spent on two main addictive substances: drugs and alcohol over an 18-year period from 1975 to 1992.
A closer look at the diagram highlights the fact that both the expenses of alcohol and drugs, despite the fluctuation, all experienced an upward trend throughout the period, but alcohol is always higher than drugs.
To be more precise, alcohol peaked at 186 billion dollars in 1980, nearly double the amount spent on drugs at the same time. Moreover, the biggest difference was in 1975 – a difference of 111 billion dollars between drugs and alcohol. When it comes to the change during this period, alcohol increased by 2 billion dollars between 1975 and 1992 – from 146 to 148 billion dollars ; while drugs jumped from 35 billion dollars to 98 billion dollars, less than threefold in the same period. Additionally, the peak of drug spending in 1980 – 102 billion dollars – was nearly equal to the amount of money spent on alcohol in 1985. Both alcohol and drug spending fell slightly compared to their peaks at the end of this time period.