The cost of addiction comes in many forms. Number one, it’s costing lives – 120 per day to be exact. The amount of people who have overdosed each year since 1999 has tripled from 16,849 to 52,404. Addiction is also a financial burden plaguing the country, with an astonishing annual price tag of $740 billion in healthcare costs, crime and lost work.
Florida is seeing the skyrocketing costs of addiction as well. According to an article published in myPalmBeachPost, the heroin epidemic is topping $1 billion annually in the sunshine state. Hospital charges are reaching an estimated $4.1 million a day and continue to rise.
The article states “in the first nine months of 2015, the statewide price tag for heroin and opium overdoses alone reached an average $641,000 a day, a 171 percent increase from 2010.” Further, of the $5.7 billion bill for Medicare and Medicaid, taxpayers paid $3.9 billion.
Drugs, Health Problems, Additional Costs
People that inject drugs face severe health risks, including the possibility of contracting Hepatitis C. According to The World Drug Report 2017, the disease, typically obtained through dirty or shared needles, “has a substantially greater negative health impact on people who use drugs than HIV, and results in far more deaths and years of “healthy” life lost as a result of premature death and disability.” In Florida, costs for hepatitis C patients who used opiates were $731,000 a day higher in 2015 than in 2010, which runs parallel to the 171 percent increase in heroin and opium overdoses.
Cost to Families
When a marriage is plagued by substance abuse, the strain, negativity, and challenges ripple effect through the entire family. One study published in May 2014 in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, researchers from the University of Michigan surveyed 17,000 people and found failed marriages were much higher in people with an alcohol use disorder – 48.3 percent, compared to those with no misuse of alcohol (30.1 percent). A clinical report, “Families Affected by Parental Substance Use,” issued from Harvard researchers in 2016 says that one in five children is affected by parents with drug or alcohol misuse. The study also finds children whose parents abuse drugs and alcohol are three times more likely to be physically, sexually or emotionally abused and four times more likely to be emotionally or physically neglected.
Treatment is Worth the Cost
There is help for you and your family. Addiction is hard to overcome but can be done with the right plan and support team. Our residential treatment program at JourneyPure Emerald Coast offers a full continuum of care, support from medical and psychological experts, one-on-one and group therapies in addition to experiential therapies and family programming.
Contact us today for more information.
Sources:
http://www.unodc.org/wdr2017/field/Booklet_1_EXSUM.pdf
https://www.overdoseday.com/resources/facts-stats/
https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2016/07/14/peds.2016-1575
