In the US study, researchers from the independent Rand Drug Policy Research Center in Santa Monica, California, looked at data from the National HouseholdSurvey on Drug Abuse between 1982 and 1994.
Some types of expenditure are estimated by reference to an average level of spending for a particular household type, using data from the Family Expenditure and Food Survey.
This survey suffers from the same seasonal adjustment issues as the HouseholdSurvey except that BLS reports the current number (141, 000 SA for September) and the revised data from the immediate past two months.