The “basket of vice” referred to in the index is comprised of four drug groups: cannabis, cocaine, opioids, and what Bloomberg calls “amphetamine-type stimulants”. Shutterstock

The “basket of vice” referred to in the index is comprised of four drug groups: cannabis, cocaine, opioids, and what Bloomberg calls “amphetamine-type stimulants”. Shutterstock

The index looks at how much citizens of a country would need to spend, based on average income, on a “basket of vice” comprised of four groupings of drugs: cannabis, cocaine, opioids, and what Bloomberg calls “amphetamine-type stimulants” (ecstasy or meth, for example). 

But the index is more of an economic gauge, looking at the price of these vices vis-à-vis the average income. In the case of Luxembourg, the basket of vice costs $197, the equivalent of 9% of average weekly income--which the study calculates “by approximation” as $2,191 by dividing 2018’s GDP per capita by 52.

Compare this to, say, the Netherlands (2nd) or the US (44th), where the same basket would cost on average $93 and $847, respectively.

The US basket price, in fact, has risen over 40% from the year prior, coming in as third most expensive in the world. 

Bloomberg admits the collection of data can be difficult “because so much of the trade…happens in the dark”.