Addictions bleed nearly $40B a year from economy: study

Last Updated: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 | 7:47 AM ET

CBC News

Addictions to tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs cost the Canadian economy $39.8 billion a year, according to survey results released Wednesday.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse said that figure, based on data from 2002, includes the cost of providing health care, losing millions of days of productivity, and handling court cases and jail sentences.

"It's a sort of a wake-up call for us to rethink how we're addressing the issues of substance abuse in Canada," said Jacques LeCavalier of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

Tobacco addiction cost the Canadian economy an estimated $17 billion. (CBC)

The $39.8 billion figure breaks down this way:

• Tobacco addiction costs are estimated at $17 billion, or 42.7 per cent of the total amount.
• Alcohol dependency costs are pinned at $14.6 billion, or 36.6 per cent.
• The costs from addictions to illegal drugs are estimated at about $8.2 billion, or 20.7 per cent.

The estimated "avoidable costs" amount to more than $1,260 for every person in Canada.

The study didn't take into account government revenue from alcohol and tobacco taxes, or the amount of money Canadians spend on buying cigarettes, liquor or illegal drugs.

The group also said more Canadians are becoming ill and dying from their addictions, pegging the number at 43,162 in 2002 alone.

The breakdown by cause of death looks like this:

• 37,209 from tobacco, including 17,679 cancer deaths, 10,853 from cardiovascular disease and 8,282 from respiratory disease.
• 4,258 deaths attributed to alcohol, including 1,246 from cirrhosis, 909 from vehicle crashes, and 603 from drinking-related suicides.
• 1,695 from illegal drugs, including 958 from fatal overdoses, 295 from suicides linked to drug use, 165 from hepatitis C infection linked to drug use, and 87 from HIV infection connected to drug use.

A Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse survey conducted 10 years ago, using figures from 1992, found that tobacco addiction was responsible for a larger share of the total cost of about $18.5 billion.

(The centre cautions that the cost figures from the two studies are not directly comparable because the surveys were conducted in different manners.)

The latest survey said alcohol and illegal drugs are now taking a bigger share of the toll.

"Increases in alcohol-attributed death and illness between 1992 and 2002 may be linked to changes in patterns of use, including increased consumption of five or more drinks on a single occasion," the study said.

At the same time, it said, drug-attributed deaths more than doubled, "largely because of an increase in drug overdoses and the spread of hepatitis C, which was not measured in 1992."