2017 World’s Cheapest Places to Buy Drugs, Alcohol and Cigarettes

Indulging in a weekly habit of drugs, booze and cigarettes can cost you as little as $41.40 in Laos and a whopping $1,441.50 in Japan, according to the Bloomberg Vice Index.

As compared by Bloomberg the price of a basket of goods — tobacco, alcohol, amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine and opioids — in more than 100 countries relative to the U.S., where your fix of the vices adds up to almost $400, or about a third of the weekly income.

In terms of absolute costs, the cheapest prices can be found in Congo, Honduras and Laos. On the other end of the scale, Japan is the most expensive with New Zealand and Australia right behind. A market basket runs below $100 in 18 countries, all of which are emerging or frontier markets from Peru to Cambodia. Many of these places are in proximity to the source, such as the Golden Triangle of opium-producing region of Asia.

"It's all about distribution costs," said Peter Reuter, a professor in the School of Public Policy and the Department of Criminology at the University of Maryland. "Being closer to the producer lowers costs."

Here is what we put in the basket: a pack of cigarettes, most popular and premium brands; a bottle of alcoholic beverages, including beer, wine and spirits; a gram of amphetamine-type stimulants, including amphetamine, methamphetamine and/or ecstasy; a gram of cannabis, including marijuana herb, hashish resin and/or cannabis oil; a gram of cocaine, regardless of salts, paste or base forms; a gram of opioids, including heroin and/or opium.

For a look at the top 50 most affordable places to feed your vices, check this out.



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