The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction partnered with the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research to examine data and attempt to quantify the costs to healthcare, the criminal justice system and lost productivity due to substance use in Canada.
This was accomplished through correlating surveys and demographic data available through 2014. Interestingly, the study found that despite the record number of opioid overdose deaths across the country, more than two-thirds of the substance use costs were associated with alcohol and tobacco.
And based on this data, opioids came in at a distant third, accounting for about 10 percent of the total costs Study co-author Tim Stockwell, of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, points out that 2014 is the most recent year for which they had data, and the opioid crisis wasn’t in full swing then.
The study breaks down the costs of four substances associated with the largest costs: They include alcohol at $14.6 billion, tobacco at $12 billion, opioids at $3.5 billion and marijuana at $2.8 billion. Stockwell said he wasn’t surprised that alcohol came out at the top of the list, saying, “That’s always been the case.”
“One of the key messages that comes out of this report is that while we do need to pay attention to the opioid crisis, while we do need to think very carefully as we move toward legalizing recreational cannabis, we shouldn’t forget about alcohol because it’s around and it’s costing Canadian society,” said Matthew Young, a senior research and policy analyst at the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction in Ottawa.
Jump in the cost of substance use
The study also found that costs associated with alcohol use jumped from $369 per person in 2007 to $412 per person in 2014. There were 14,827 alcohol-related deaths in 2014 at an average age of 65. Tobacco use caused 47,562 deaths in 2014 at an average age of 74 years, reports the Toronto Star.
Cannabis caused 8,851 deaths and opioids 2,396 deaths at an average age of 45 years. “So many more people use alcohol and tobacco still, particularly alcohol, so there is a toll that is affecting more Canadians than those using opioids,” said Stockwell.
“I think most people would be surprised to know that alcohol and tobacco are killing ten times more people than the other illicit drugs combined.”
One of the big things to come out of this study is that the information can be used by politicians, decision-makers, and researchers in developing sound policies.
Alcohol use was associated with 20 percent of all violent crime, and that is a conservative estimate, according to researchers, and it is a huge cost to the economy. “If you talk to police, particularly ones who work late at night, they would say about 70 percent of their work is alcohol-related, and that flows through to the courts and to the prison costs,” said Stockwell.
Alcohol was responsible for $3.2 billion in criminal justice costs, including police work, courts, and corrections. Governments across Canada took in $10.5 billion in revenue and taxes from the sale of alcohol in 2013-2014, according to Statistics Canada, not even close to the estimated $14.6 billion that alcohol use cost the country.
