News / Education
Less Drug Prevention Means More Cleanup
As less government money is spent on drug prevention, the costs of cleaning up the fallout from substance abuse skyrockets.
An ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of cure, but it’s a lesson the federal government isn’t applying to our country’s drug problem. While addiction and the consequences of substance abuse cost the U.S. government nearly $500 billion in 2005, a very small fraction of that money was spent on prevention and treatment, according to a recent report from Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.
Figures show that a paltry 1.9 percent was spent on prevention and treatment, and less than 1 percent was spent on research and interdiction. Meanwhile, approximately 95 percent was spent cleaning up the aftereffects of addiction and substance abuse. That means that for every dollar spent on prevention and treatment, the federal and state governments spent more than $50 on public programs aimed at addressing the effects of addiction, the report says.
The medical community knows that addiction is preventable, treatable and manageable, with facilities like La Paloma Treatment Center seeing great success in treating a wide range of addictions. But instead of focusing on treatment and prevention, federal, state and local governments spent some $467.7 billion in 2005 on substance abuse-related costs ranging from healthcare, justice systems, family court, child welfare and homelessness.
The eye-opening report, which includes stats for 2005 (the most recent year for which data was available over the course of the study), is the result of three years of study.
Titled "Shoveling Up II: The Impact of Substance Abuse on Federal, State and Local Budgets," you can read more here: http://www.casacolumbia.org/absolutenm/templates/PressReleases.aspx?articleid=112&zoneid=49
