Studies have reported a positive relationship between alcohol consumption and general levels of affluence in society. The present paper suggests that drug use and abuse should also be related to affluence since, to some extent, alcohol and drugs are substitute products. Levels of drug abuse and levels of affluence, in society, change over time. Therefore, indicators of affluence (economic and health conditions) and various types of illicit drug abuse in five countries were examined for the period 1960-1975. The results of our investigation show that officially recorded measures of drug abuse, in each of five countries, were related to improvements in economic and health conditions.