US opioid crisis cost $500 billion in 2015, higher than previously estimated
The US opioid epidemic ravaging American communities cost over $500 billion in 2015, more expensive than previously thought, according to a new analysis by the US government.
The White House Council of Economic Advisers said Monday that the true cost of the crisis in 2015 was $504 billion, more than six times 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 $78.5 billion.
Most of that expense was attributed to health care and criminal justice spending, along with lost productivity.
"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," the report said.
US President Donald Trump said Monday at a cabinet meeting in the White House that the "opioid epidemic that is ravaging so many American families and communities" would be among topics for discussion.
Last month, Trump declared the US drug crisis a “public health emergency.” He also announced an advertising campaign to combat the epidemic, but did not direct any new federal funding toward the effort.
Opioids are drugs formulated to replicate the pain reducing properties of opium. They include both legal painkillers like morphine, oxycodone, or hydrocodone prescribed by doctors for acute or chronic pain, as well as illegal drugs like heroin or illicitly made fentanyl.
The word "opioid" is derived from the word "opium."
US government and healthcare officials have been struggling to stem the epidemic of overdoses, which killed more than 64,000 Americans last year alone, up from 52,000 the previous year. More than half were related to opioids.
Opioid drug abuse has killed more Americans than the US wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined, highlighting the growing opioid crisis in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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