Samenvatting

Illegal activities like smuggling, prostitution and the production and sales of illicit drugs contribute to the national income of a country. In practice, however, they are not included in the statistics, because reliable estimates of the size of these activities hardly exist. Recently Statistics Netherlands started research into the share of illegal activities in the national income. This article presents the first estimates for the production and trade of illicit drugs. The total contribution of illicit drugs to the national income of the Netherlands ranges from € 1,300 million in 1995 to almost € 1,800 million in 1998 to 1,200 million in 2008. This is equal to approximately 0.45% of the national income in the 1990s to about 0.2% in 2008. The main reasons for this decrease are the decrease in the prices for drugs, the deterioration of terms of trade and the increase in international competition, especially for xtc and amphetamines.