The cost of the election campaigns of two US presidential hopefuls, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, until October 19, 2016, has totaled $2.1bn, which is equivalent to the budget allocated by the US federal government for prevention of substance abuse and alcoholism among American adults, including 8th, 10th, and 12th grade pupils, for a period of seventeen months.

Monitoring the Future is an American organization which has studied 50,000 American 8^th, 10^th, and 12^th grade pupils per annum as of the mid-1970s to this day. This organization operates under the supervision of a number of US state-run organizations, such as the US National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the US National Institute of Health.

Part of the annual figures released by this American organization is related to the rate of consumption of illicit drugs and alcohol by the American high school pupils.

In accordance to the figures released in the year 2015, 58.2% of 12^th grade American pupils consume alcoholic drinks; 34.9% of them smoke marijuana; 2.9% of them consume LSD pills; 2.5% of them consume cocaine, and 3.6% of them consume ecstasy pills. Moreover, 5.4% of American 12^th grade pupils are heroin addicts.

Meanwhile, the comparison of the annual figures released by the Monitoring the Future Organization reveals that the rate of consumption of marijuana among 8^th, 10^th, and 12^th grade American pupils has surged. In the year 2015, 6.5% of American 8^th grade pupils, 14.8% of 10^th grade American pupils; and 21.3% of 12^th grade American pupils consumed pot. In the meantime, 6% of 12^th grade American pupils consume marijuana on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, facts and figures on the rate of consumption of illicit drugs among American pupils have generated concerns of the American sociologists and physicians. They believe that serious measures should be taken to prevent the spread of drug abuse and alcoholism among American youths.

MR/MG