New Study Reveals Substance Abuse Costs Ontarians $14 Billion

April 26, 2006 (Toronto, ON) – A new study released today indicates that the abuse of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs cost Ontario $14 billion over a one year period, representing $1,185 per person in the province. According to the Costs of Substance Abuse in Canada 2002 study, this severe economic burden is comprised of both direct health care and criminal justice costs, as well as the indirect drain on productivity resulting from disability and premature death.

The study also reveals that in Ontario:

Tobacco use imposes the greatest cost at $6.1 billion (42.4% of the total cost of substance abuse)
Alcohol accounts for $5.3 billion, or 37.2% of the cost
Illegal drugs cause the relatively lowest economic burden at $2.9 billion (20.4%).

It is interesting to note that legal substances—tobacco and alcohol—account for 80% of the cost of substance abuse (which is defined by the study as substance use that imposes costs on society that exceed the costs of providing the substance in the first place). Ontario’s distribution of costs is consistent with the overall results for Canada, which indicate that tobacco imposes the greatest cost at $17 billion (42.7%), alcohol $14.6 billion (36.6%), and illegal drugs $8.2 billion (20.7%), with a total cost to Canadians of almost $40 billion. The direct health care costs of substance abuse in Canada are higher than either heart disease or cancer.

Ontario differs from provinces like British Columbia, which has a 50% higher per capita cost of illegal drugs, or Newfoundland where per capita tobacco costs are 36% higher. In fact, Ontario’s per capita cost for tobacco is the lowest of all ten provinces.

According to Dr. Jürgen Rehm, principal investigator for the Costs study and Senior Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), “while we cannot make direct comparisons between this study and the previous Costs study done 10 years ago, the data does indicate that harm attributable to tobacco has gone down, whereas the harms of alcohol and illegal drugs have relatively increased.”

Dr. Rehm points out that “Substance abuse remains a substantial public heath problem for Ontario, and not just for those with a psychiatric diagnosis of dependence or abuse. For example, 50% of the costs of alcohol use and abuse are by people who do not have a diagnosis of alcohol dependence or abuse.”

There is an urgent need to address the devastating costs of substance abuse, ”said Dr. Rehm, “Research in Canada and internationally clearly demonstrates that government regulation and policy measures are by far the most effective and cost-effective tools in decreasing these costs.”

Government has put extensive resources into reducing the costs of tobacco, and we are now seeing the results of these efforts. Nevertheless, compared to other substances, tobacco continues to impose the greatest cost burden on Ontarians. According to Dr. Roberta Ferrence, Director, Ontario Tobacco Research Unit and Senior Scientist, CAMH, “ There is still a lot of public policy work to be done. Key strategies for reducing the costs of tobacco use include tax increases, restrictions on use, reduced availability, and support for quitting. We know that quitting relatively early in life greatly reduces lifetime health and productivity costs.”

There is also a lot of evidence on how the costs of alcohol abuse can be reduced. For instance, Dr. Robert Mann, Senior Scientist, CAMH, has estimated that reducing the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) level for drivers from the current level of 0.08 to 0.05 would decrease the number of driver fatalities by between 6 and 18%. Research demonstrates that alcohol monopolies are an important tool for governments to implement alcohol policies that control sales, promote public health, curtail risk and reduce drinking-related damage. Recent studies are also showing that alcohol advertising can act to increase alcohol consumption and harms, and has been linked to increases in drinking and drinking-related problems seen among youth.

Reducing the social costs of illegal drugs requires a different approach. “According to international research, a ‘harm reduction’ approach, integrated with prevention, enforcement and treatment, has proven to be the most effective. This is the approach adopted in the new Toronto Drug Strategy. A province-wide drug strategy would greatly enhance the effectiveness of both the Toronto Drug Strategy and the proposed National Framework as they are implemented, and is a necessary bridge between these efforts,” said Gail Czukar, CAMH Executive Vice-President, Education, Policy and Health Promotion, today.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) was the lead organization on the Costs of Substance Abuse in Canada 2002, workingin partnership with addictions and mental health agencies from across the country. It was guided by a steering committee composed of representatives of government, addiction agencies, private industry and academia.

Highlights of The Costs of Substance Abuse 2002 are available at www.ccsa.ca

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is a Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization Collaborating Centre and a teaching hospital fully affiliated with the University of Toronto.

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For more information or to schedule interviews with survey investigators, please contact Michael Torres, Media Relations Coordinator, CAMH, at (416) 595-6015.