This report, published by the West Virginia Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being and funded by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Block Grant, details the financial burden of substance abuse on the health care system. According to the report, $116 million of the health care budget was spent on substance abuse treatment in 2007 and that figure is projected to increase to $201 million by 2010.

From the report:

This report uses a mix of methodologies from two previous studies that have attempted to estimate the cost of drug and alcohol use. The first, “Shoveling Up: The Impact of Substance Abuse on State Budgets,” was released by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University in 2001, and was recently updated in 2009. The second study, titled “Integrated Funding Analysis of Mental Health and Substance Use in West Virginia,” was released by the Public Consulting Group (PCG) in 2007. However, the present study makes some unique contributions to the two reports. First, it provides more recent estimates of the cost of drug and alcohol use to the state. Second, it provides cost trends over the past 8 years and, based on those trends, makes projections for costs in year 2017. Unless otherwise noted, linear trend was assumed for these projections. Third, this report includes certain sectors that are impacted by drugs and alcohol use but were excluded from one or both of the previous two reports. Finally, this report was initiated with the intent of producing annual updates; consequently, only data that are available annually were used.

The West Virginia Partnership to Promote Well-being. (2009). The financial burden of substance abuse in West Virginia: the healthcare system. Shobo, Yetty, Coombs, Wayne & Whisman, Andy

Full report:

http://www.prevnet.org/funding%20study/pdf/2009-10-FS-HealthcareReport.pdf

This study, supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, found that individuals attaining high levels of an anti-cocaine antibody had significantly more cocaine free urine samples than those with lower antibody levels or those taking a placebo.  Unlike the antibodies produced by other vaccines, which destroy or disable the disease-causing agent, the cocaine antibodies prevent the drug from passing through the blood brain barrier to inhibit the drugs euphoric effects.   The study found that the proportion of subjects having a 50 percent reduction in use was significantly greater in those attaining higher antibody levels than those with lower levels.  However, only 38 percent vaccinated subjects attained the high antibody levels and significant effects of the vaccine only lasted 2 months.

Martell, B. A., Orson, F. M., Poling, J. et al. (2009). Cocaine vaccine for the treatment of cocaine dependence in methadone-maintained patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 66(10), 1116-1123. http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/66/10/1116

Authors: Bridget A. Martell, Frank M. Orson, James Poling, Ellen Mitchell, Roger D. Rossen, Tracie Gardner, Thomas R. Kosten.

The United Way of Greater Los Angeles commissioned a study conducted by the University of Southern California (USC) that chronicled the consumption of public services by four homeless people over a two-year period. The study reported five principal cost areas: substance abuse, physical health, mental health, criminal justice, and housing.  The study found that permanent housing solutions yield a 43% cost savings.  For two years, the total cost to provide public services without permanent housing was over $80,000 greater than the cost to provide permanent housing in addition to support services.  When permanent housing was provided, mental health services were the only area with increased costs; however, the associated benefits of regularly seeking mental health services had positive impacts on the system.

From the report:

In order to analyze the costs of public services, investigators focused first on the two-year period before the individu­als were placed in permanent supportive housing. During that time period, two of the four had gone through detox six times costing $23,382. Two of the four had been hospitalized (removal of kidney stone and bladder infection) at a cost of $20,250. All four had used the hospital emergency room for health and alcohol issues (19 visits), costing an additional $7,885. All four had been arrested at least once ($2,756) and spent time in jail ($8,545). One of the four had also served 90 days in prison ($12,060).

United Way of Greater Los Angeles. (2009). Homeless cost study.

Full report: http://www.unitedwayla.org/getinformed/news/Documents/HomelessCostStudy_09_r2_v3.pdf

This report released on October 30 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and compiled from Washington Department of Health data found that Washington’s opioid overdose death rate vastly exceeds the national average.  In addition, the report found that the overdoses were concentrated among the state’s Medicaid population, with Medicaid enrollees 5.7 times more likely to die of an overdose than the general population.

From the report:

For this analysis, the Washington State Department of Health defined an overdose death involving prescription opioids as a death in Washington during 2004--2007 of a state resident whose death certificate had 1) a manner of death of "accidental" or "natural"; 2) one or more contributing causes coded to "poisoning by narcotics" or a "mental and behavioral disorder due to use of opioids" (based on International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision codes T40.0--T40.6 and F11*); 3) specific words compatible with an acute drug intoxication recorded in any of the cause of death fields (e.g., "overdose"); and 4) a prescription opioid term in any of the cause of death fields. Examples of prescription opioid terms sought on manual review of the certificates were "oxycodone," "methadone," and "hydrocodone." Although morphine is a prescription opioid painkiller, it is also a metabolite of heroin. Therefore, mention of morphine on a death certificate was only accepted as evidence that a death was prescription opioid--related when the certificate specified that the morphine was a prescription drug. As a result, 82 deaths involving morphine and no other opioids (36.6% of all deaths in which morphine was mentioned) were excluded from this analysis.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2009). Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids among Medicaid enrollees - Washington, 2004—2007.

Full report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5842a1.htm

The Iowa Office of Drug Control Policy, the Drug Policy Advisory Council, and the state Departments of Corrections; Education; Human Rights, Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning; Human Services; Public Health; and Public Safety collaborated to create this plan for coordinated treatment, prevention, and enforcement actions to combat substance abuse.

From the executive summary:

The newest, and fastest growing, form of substance abuse by Iowans involves prescription and over-the-counter medicines. Teenagers tend to view these drugs as ―safe,‖ and many parents are not yet aware of their potential for abuse. Stories of teens sharing pills to get high are increasingly common in Iowa communities. According to the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Division of Narcotics Enforcement (DNE), the number of pharmaceutical cases opened in 2008 was 243% higher than the number of cases opened in 2007. The number of dosage units of pharmaceuticals seized by DNE in 2008 increased 412% from the total seized in 2007. Similarly, treatment centers anecdotally report a dramatic increase in prescription drug abuse clients. Pain killers (e.g., hydrocodone and oxycodone) seem to be the favorite targets of thieves who steal from medicine cabinets and pharmacies. Public calls to the Statewide Poison Control Center to identify hydrocodone and oxycodone pain pills have skyrocketed 1,225% since 2002, and officials with the center believe some of that increase signifies the growing diversion and abuse of prescription drugs in Iowa.

Coordinated State Government Agencies and Iowa Drug Policy Advisory Council. (2009). Iowa's drug control strategy 2010.