包括特朗普總統在內的上上下下，幾乎每個人都覺得能在CVS或Walgreens買到的那些藥貴得像在敲美國人竹杠。

其他“藥”也很貴。這是彭博全球惡習指數（Bloomberg Global Vice Index）的最新發現，該指數每年都會對疑似非法毒品的價格進行追蹤。

美國人需要花846美元才能買“一籃子惡習商品”，其中包括阿片類藥物、可卡因、大麻和安非他明類興奮劑等四大類別毒品。這個價格在全世界位居第三，僅低于新西蘭和澳大利亞，比去年增長了40％以上。

惡習商品指標僅僅是經濟指標，并非對其是否道德或合法進行判斷。在不同轄區，允許將大麻、可卡因和海洛因用于不同形式的娛樂或醫療用途，而在美國境內，關于毒品的討論出現了一些變化。有些州已經放寬了對大麻的限制，而各個層級對合法處方阿片類藥物的反對聲都在增強，因為此類藥物已經導致數萬美國人死亡。

該指標還計算維持每周劑量所需費用占平均收入的比例（收入數據出自國際貨幣基金組織）。美國的比例是70％，幾乎是鄰國加拿大的兩倍，加拿大一籃子的價格是300美元出頭，與半個地球之隔的香港基本持平。

盧森堡再次成為最嗑得起藥的國家，荷蘭躋身第二。前者是因為盧森堡人很富裕，年收入超過10萬美元，后者是因為毒品很便宜。在荷蘭，一籃子只需93美元，遠低于大多數發達國家的市場價格。

荷蘭同時也是重要出口國。歐洲毒品和毒癮監測中心的2018年報告中指出：“暗網上非法販毒的數量不斷增加，據信相當多的供應商都來自于荷蘭。”

相較于往年，2019年的彭博指數進行了精簡，原來還包括香煙和酒精。該指數還回顧了同一商品的往年數據，進行對比。而保留下來的項目——非法藥品很多都是暗地交易，增加了數據收集的難度，而且調查往往會受到時間滯差的影響。還有一些地區非法藥品的價格變化更多是因為貨幣波動，而非其場外行情。

有一個地方的價格高得毫無爭議，那就是澳新。澳大利亞的價格居全球之首，為1263美元，相當于每周工資的116％，高于一年前的91％，該變化主要反映了阿片類藥物價格上漲。新西蘭人每周維持習慣劑量所需費用也高于收入。

據央行估計，截至2017年8月，澳大利亞人當年在非法毒品上花了135億澳元（97億美元），冰毒和大麻占購買量的70％以上。這個數字來源于一項該國紙幣流通情況的研究：據估計，其中近2％用于非法毒品交易。

價格刻度尺的另一端是老撾、多米尼加共和國和哥斯達黎加等國，這些國家靠近主要生產中心或走私路線。《哥斯達黎加星報》（the Costa Rica Star）12月報道，1公斤可卡因售價約為8000美元，相比之下，美國為35000美元，歐洲的部分地區為60000美元。

彭博籃子包含四種成分，包括剔除鹽及其它常見混合糊劑后的1克可卡因；1克安非他明類興奮劑，如冰毒或搖頭丸；1克大麻制品，如大麻草藥或大麻樹脂；1克阿片類藥物，如海洛因或鴉片。

指數中略多于一半國家的籃子價格相較去年有所上漲。美國漲幅最大，大部分原因是可卡因和阿片類藥物價格的上漲，2018年全美嗑藥致死超7萬人，這兩類毒品占比將近70%。

奧施康定等止痛藥在毒品濫用中的角色得到了密切關注。主營成癮治療中心的佛羅里達公司德爾福行為健康集團（Delphi Behavioral Health Group）贊助的一份報告表明，每片奧施康定的場外價格約為處方藥價的10倍。撲熱息痛的漲幅大約是2比1。

禮來公司董事長、國際制藥廠協會聯盟（總部位于日內瓦）主席戴維·瑞克斯在2018年摩根大通醫療保健會議上表示：“在這場令人難以置信的危機中，阿片類藥物的濫用是重要原因。”

該問題是全球性的。聯合國《2018年世界毒品報告》（2018 World Drug Report）中稱，“越來越多的處方藥被用于非醫療用途（從合法渠道轉移或非法制造）”，該報告是彭博的主要數據來源之一。（財富中文網）

譯者：Agatha

Almost everyone, from President Donald Trump on down, agrees that Americans are getting gouged when they buy the kinds of drugs you can find at CVS or Walgreens.

They pay a high price for other drugs too. That’s one finding of the latest Bloomberg Global Vice Index, an annual tracker of the cost of drugs that may be illegal.

Americans would need to shell out $846 for a “basket of vice’’ made up of four generic groups of drugs: opioids, cocaine, cannabis and amphetamine-type stimulants. It’s the third-highest price in the world, behind only New Zealand and Australia – and up more than 40 percent from a year earlier.

The vice gauge is purely an economic indicator, not a judgment about morality or legality. Marijuana, cocaine and heroin are permitted for recreational or medical use in various formats and jurisdictions, while inside the U.S. the debate on drugs is shifting. Several states have been easing curbs on cannabis, while there’s a mobilization at all levels against the abuse of legal prescription opioids, which have killed tens of thousands of Americans.

The gauge also measures the share of average incomes (based on International Monetary Fund data) that’s needed to maintain a weekly habit. In the U.S., for example, the figure is 70 percent, almost double the level of neighboring Canada, where the basket costs a bit more than $300, about the same as halfway around the world in Hong Kong.

Luxembourg repeated as the most affordable nation to get high, while the Netherlands jumped a few places to rank No. 2. In the former case, that’s because Luxembourgers are rich – with annual earnings above $100,000 — and in the latter, because drugs are cheap. The Dutch basket costs just $93, well below the going rate in most developed economies.

The Netherlands is a key exporter too. “With the amount of illicit drug trafficking on the dark net increasing, a considerable number of vendors reportedly operate from the Netherlands,’’ the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction said in its 2018 report.

Bloomberg’s 2019 Index has been streamlined from previous editions, which included cigarettes and alcohol. A look-back measure for the same products was made for comparison. Because so much of the trade in the remaining items happens in the dark, data collection is difficult and surveys tend to suffer from a time lag. Some price changes also have more to do with fluctuations in currencies than in the street price of illicit drugs.

One place where that price is indisputably high is in the Antipodes. Australia’s world-beating price tag was $1,263, or 116 percent of the weekly pay, up from 91 percent a year ago, mostly reflecting a hike in opioids. In New Zealand, the cost of a habit also exceeds a week’s income.

Australians spent $13.5 billion ($9.7 billion) on illicit drugs in the year through August 2017, the central bank estimates, with methamphetamine and cannabis accounting for more than 70 percent of purchases. The figure comes from a study of how the country’s banknotes circulate: it estimated that almost 2 percent of them are used in illegal drug deals.

At the other end of the price scale are countries like Laos, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica, that are close to key production centers or smuggling routes. The Costa Rica Star newspaper reported in December that a kilogram of cocaine sells for about $8,000, compared with $35,000 in the U.S. and $60,000 in parts of Europe.

A gram of cocaine, stripped of the salts or paste it’s often mixed with, is one of the four components of Bloomberg’s basket. The others are a gram of amphetamine-type stimulants, such as methamphetamine or ecstasy; a gram of cannabis products such as marijuana herb or hashish resin; and a gram of opioids such as heroin or opium.

The basket’s price rose year-on-year in slightly more than half of the countries in the index. The U.S. recorded one of the biggest jumps, with the bulk of the increase coming from cocaine and opioids — classes of drugs that accounted for almost 70 percent of the more than 70,000 fatal overdoses recorded in the country in 2017.

The role of painkillers such as OxyContin in the epidemic has come under close scrutiny. Its street price per pill is about 10 times the prescription price, according to a report sponsored by the Delphi Behavioral Health Group, a Florida-based company that manages addiction treatment centers. The markup on Percocet is about two-to-one.

“It’s too much use of opioids which is driving this incredible crisis,” David Ricks, chairman of Eli Lilly & Co. and president of the Geneva-based International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations, told the J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference in 2018.

The problem is a global one. “There has been an increase in the non-medical use of prescription drugs (either diverted from licit channels or illicitly manufactured),’’ the United Nations said in its 2018 World Drug Report, one of Bloomberg’s main data sources for the index.