Jump to full article: New York Times, 2009-05-28
Intro: Government spending related to smoking and the abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs reached $468 billion in 2005, accounting for more than one-tenth of combined federal, state and local expenditures for all purposes, according to a new study.
Most abuse-related spending went toward direct health care costs for lung disease, cirrhosis and overdoses, for example, or for law enforcement expenses including incarceration, according to the report released Thursday by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse . . .
The study is the first to calculate abuse-related spending by all three levels of government.
"This is such a stunning misallocation of resources," said Joseph A. Califano Jr., chairman of the center, referring to the lack of preventive measures. "It's a commentary on the stigma attached to addictions and the failure of governments to make investments in the short run that would pay enormous dividends to taxpayers over time."
Beyond resulting in poor health and crime, addictions and substance abuse -- especially alcohol -- are major underlying factors in other costly social problems like homelessness, domestic violence and child abuse. . . .
The new report cites the antismoking campaigns of the last several decades as a promising model: education, higher taxes and restrictions on smoking zones have cut the incidence of smoking by close to half, saving billions in costs. It called for similar efforts to curb under-age drinking and excess alcohol consumption by adults, using higher taxes on beer, for example.
Even with tobacco, far more could be done, according to the report, which noted that only a small fraction of the more than $200 billion the states have received since 1998 under the Multi-State Tobacco Settlement had gone to prevention of smoking.
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