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Tablets of the opioid-based Hydrocodone at a pharmacy in Portsmouth, Ohio.
Tablets of the opioid-based Hydrocodone at a pharmacy in Portsmouth, Ohio. Photograph: Bryan Woolston/Reuters
Tablets of the opioid-based Hydrocodone at a pharmacy in Portsmouth, Ohio. Photograph: Bryan Woolston/Reuters

White House says true cost of opioid drug epidemic in 2015 was $504bn

This article is more than 6 years old
  • New study puts cost at more than six times previous estimate
  • Report factors in illicit opiods like heroin as well as prescription drugs

The White House says the true cost of the opioid drug epidemic in 2015 was $504bn, or roughly half a trillion dollars.

In an analysis to be released on Monday, the Council of Economic Advisers says the figure is more than six times larger than the most recent estimate. The council said a 2016 private study estimated that prescription opioid overdoes, abuse and dependence in the US in 2013 cost $78.5bn. Most of that was attributed to healthcare and criminal justice spending, along with lost productivity.

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Why is there an opioid crisis in America?

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Almost 100 people are dying every day across America from opioid overdoses – more than car crashes and shootings combined. The majority of these fatalities reveal widespread addiction to powerful prescription painkillers. The crisis unfolded in the mid-90s when the US pharmaceutical industry began marketing legal narcotics, particularly OxyContin, to treat everyday pain. This slow-release opioid was vigorously promoted to doctors and, amid lax regulation and slick sales tactics, people were assured it was safe. But the drug was akin to luxury morphine, doled out like super aspirin, and highly addictive. What resulted was a commercial triumph and a public health tragedy. Belated efforts to rein in distribution fueled a resurgence of heroin and the emergence of a deadly, black market version of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. The crisis is so deep because it affects all races, regions and incomes

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The council said its estimate is significantly larger because the epidemic has worsened, with overdose deaths doubling in the past decade, and that some previous studies did not reflect the number of fatalities blamed on opioids, a powerful but addictive category of painkillers.

The council also noted that previous studies had focused exclusively on prescription opioids, while its study also factors in illicit opioids, including heroin.

“Previous estimates of the economic cost of the opioid crisis greatly underestimate it by undervaluing the most important component of the loss – fatalities resulting from overdoses,” said the report, which the White House released on Sunday night.

Last month at the White House, Donald Trump declared opioid abuse a national public health emergency. Trump announced an advertising campaign to combat what he said was the worst drug crisis in the nation’s history, but he did not direct any new federal funding toward the effort.

Trump’s declaration stopped short of the emergency declaration that had been sought by a federal commission the president created to study the problem. An interim report by the commission argued for an emergency declaration, saying it would free additional money and resources.

But in its final report earlier this month, the panel called only for more drug courts, more training for doctors and penalties for insurers that dodge covering addiction treatment. It did not call for new money to address the epidemic.

More than 64,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year, most involving a prescription painkiller or an illicit opioid like heroin.

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