Pubdate: Wed, 26 Apr 2006
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2006 Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Norma Greenaway, CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?143 (Hepatitis)

SUBSTANCE ABUSE COSTING ECONOMY ABOUT $40-BILLION A YEAR, NEW STUDY FINDS

OTTAWA - The abuse of alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs costs the 
Canadian economy almost $40-billion a year, a whopping tab that boils 
down to $1,276 for every man, woman and child in the country, a new 
report says.

The study, being released today by the Canadian Centre on Substance 
Abuse, says the cost is up significantly from the last comprehensive 
review, in 1996, and should be cause for concern.

"It's a wake-up call for all of us to rethink how it is we should 
address this problem," Michel Perron, the centre's chief executive 
officer, said in an interview. "While this is an accounting exercise 
in a sense of quantifying these costs, I think we all know that 
substance abuse really does affect every Canadian from coast to coast 
to coast."

The report says two legal substances -- tobacco and alcohol -- 
account for 80% of the $39.8-billion toll. However, the report says a 
dramatic increase in illegal drug use is cause for special concern. 
It says there was more than a doubling of drug-related deaths between 
1992 and 2002, largely because of overdoses and the spread of 
previously unmeasured hepatitis C.

Tobacco accounted for about $17-billion, or 42%, of the total 
estimate; alcohol for $14.6-billion, or 36.6%; and illegal drugs for 
about $8.2-billion, or 20.7%. The centre says the report, based on 
data from 2002, is a more detailed and accurate reading of the costs 
than the 1996 report, which put the total cost of abuse at $18.5-billion a year.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman