On May 26, the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) released this report, estimating that illegal drug use had an economic impact of $193 billion in 2007.  The authors examined the economic impact of illegal drug use on crime, health, and productivity, attributing the primary cost of illegal drug use to lost productivity, at $120.3 billion.  The authors determined that crime and health costs of illegal drug use totaled $61.4 billion and $11.4 billion, respectively.  NDIC also employed an alternate model, under which lost productivity due to incarceration and homicide were treated as crime costs.  Under that model, crime costs totaled $113.3 billion and productivity costs were estimated at $68.4 billion, though the overall total was unchanged.

From the report:

The National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) prepares an annual National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA) that provides federal policymakers and senior officials with a comprehensive appraisal of the danger that trafficking and use of illicit drugs pose to the security of our nation. To expand the scope of its NDTA, and to provide the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and other federal officials with a broad and deep understanding of the full burden that illicit drug use places on our country, NDIC has prepared this assessment— The Economic Impact of Illicit Drug Use on American Society. The assessment is conducted within a Cost of Illness (COI) framework that has guided work of this kind for several decades. As such, it monetizes the consequences of illicit drug use, thereby allowing its impact to be gauged relative to other social problems.

Full Report: The Economic Impact of Illicit Drug Use on American Society (PDF | 4.76 MB)

U.S. Department of Justics. (2011). The economic impact of illicit drug use on American society.

This National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD) report examines state-level health care reform efforts in Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont and their effects on substance abuse treatment and prevention.  Though all three states passed mandates and parity for substance abuse services within private insurance plans, NASADAD found that the Single State Agency (SSA) continued to play a prominent role in substance abuse treatment and prevention both during and after health care reform.  The SSAs played a valuable implementation role, including acting as liaisons with the criminal justice and welfare systems.  Furthermore, NASADAD notes the continued importance of SAMHSA's Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block Grant during and after health care reform.  The report notes that all three states experienced increased numbers of uninsured clients seeking services after reform and further notes that reform does not fund recovery support services traditionally delivered by SAT providers.  Finally, NASADAD notes that even under reform, the SAPT Block Grant remained the primary funder of prevention services in all three states. The authors conclude that there is a vital role for the SSA and the SAPT Block Grant both during and after health care reform. 

Full report: http://www.nasadad.org/resource.php?base_id=2104 

National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors. (2010). The effects of health care reform on access to, and funding of, substance abuse services in Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont.

This study used the Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX) database to examine associations between opioid abuse and dependence on the cost and comobordities of Medicaid beneficiaries.

McAdam-Marx, C., Roland, C.L., Cleveland, J., Oderda, G.M. (2010). Costs of opioid abuse and misuse determined from a Medicaid database. Journal of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy, 24(1): 5-18. http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/15360280903544877  

Authors: Carrie McAdam-Marx,‌ Carl L. Roland‌, Jody Cleveland‌ and Gary M. Oderda‌

SAMHSA's Office of Applied Studies uses the Drug and Alcohol Services Information System (DASIS) to conduct the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) Report. The report is the primary source of information on the prevalence, patterns, and consequences of drug and alcohol use and abuse in the general U.S. civilian non institutionalized population, age 12 and older.

From the report:

More than 18.4 million full-time employees aged 18 to 64 (15.5 percent of the full-time adult workers in that age range) had no health insurance coverage and represented the majority (54.5 percent) of adults under age 65 without health insurance coverage. An estimated 3.0 million uninsured full-time workers (16.3 percent) needed substance use treatment in the past year; specifically, 13.3 percent needed alcohol use treatment, 5.6 percent needed illicit drug use treatment, and 2.7 percent needed both alcohol and illicit drug use treatment. Of the uninsured workers who needed substance use treatment in the past year, 12.6 percent (378,000 persons) received treatment at a specialty facility.

Full report: http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k10/177/UninsuredWorkers.cfm

U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2010). The NSDUH report: Substance use treatment need among uninsured workers.

The West Virginia Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being, a strategic policy and planning board appointed by Governor Joe Manchin (D), release a report that claims alcohol and substance abuse costs West Virginia schools $13 million annually.  That figure includes funding for prevention, treatment, and school-based mental health programs in elementary and secondary schools, as well as colleges and universities, and does not include spending on staffing, special education programs, drug and alcohol related truancy, property damages, and legal costs.  The partnership recommends that the state adopt a proposal it offered last year, which would include $23.5 million annually for prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery services.  Lawmakers attempted to raise that funding earlier this year with an unsuccessful proposal for a tax on beer and an unsuccessful bid to use surplus Medicaid funds.  The report is the third in a series released by the partnership.  The first two reports found the annual cost of alcohol and substance abuse to be $116 million and $333 million for the health care system and the criminal justice system, respectively.

From the report:

West Virginia Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being. (2010). The financial burden of substance abuse in West Virginia: the education system. Shobo, Y., Coombs, W. and Whisman, A.

In a speech given to the Princeton University Policy Research Institute on March 5, Nancy G. La Vigne, the Director of the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center, discussed research that shows rehabilitative reentry programs show promise for people leaving corrections.

From the report:

While our findings on program effectiveness may be mixed, our research at the Urban Institute suggests that, programs aside, exposure to specific reentry practices is associated with better outcomes for exiting prisoners. Our landmark study, Returning Home: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry, interviewed soon-to-be released prisoners in four states, following them in the community for up to a year. That research gleaned the following insights:

• Education, specifically obtaining one's GED behind bars, is associated with higher rates of employment after release.
• Employment matters in preventing recidivism, but what makes the biggest difference is the wages one earns; released prisoners who earn $10?12 an hour are twice as likely to remain crime free than their employed counterparts earning minimum wage.
• Drug treatment behind bars is associated with lower rates of relapse in the community.
• Family support can make a tremendous difference in reentry outcomes. Those with strong financial and emotional support from family members are less likely to relapse and return to prison. (Nearly all participants interviewed said they had at least one supportive family member in their lives).

These findings and others like them suggest that the last thing correctional agencies should do is to cut educational, employment, substance abuse treatment, and family reunification programs. To the contrary, in these tough economic times, agencies should consider increasing them in the interests of using reentry initiatives as a means of reducing the correctional population.

Full report: http://www.urban.org/publications/901332.html 

Urban Institute. (2010). Can reentry programs be both effective and cost beneficial? Speech to Princeton University Policy Research Institute. La Vigne, N.G.