Page 10 - Addiction and Overdose: Confronting an American Crisis

THE COST OF ADDICTION

The addiction and overdose crisis in the United States takes a terrible toll in
human suffering. It also has a gigantic monetary cost. A Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center and VA Boston Healthcare System study reported in 2016 that
the cost of hospitalizations in the United States for opioid abuse and dependence
nearly quadrupled to $15 billion between 2002 and 2012. Of that, $700 million
paid for hospitalizations related to opioid-associated infections. These infections
of the bone, heart, and brain come from sharing dirty needles. The average cost
per hospitalization for the treatment of opioid abuse was $28,000. Treatment for
an infection associated with opioid abuse was more than $107,000.
Dr. Shoshana Herzig, coauthor of the study, said, “The . . . consequences
of opioid abuse and dependence, including serious infection, are
severe—for individual patients and their loved ones, caregivers, hospital
systems, and the federal government [the most common payer for opioid-
associated hospitalizations].”

into the seedpod of the poppy to release the thick, milky opium
sap. Once exposed to the air, the sap turns into a brownish-
black, gumlike substance. Natural opiates include morphine,
heroin, and codeine.
• Prescription painkillers are classified as opioids, and many
people use them for severe pain. Opioids are synthetic forms
of opiates, manufactured in legitimate laboratories for medical
use and sometimes in illegal laboratories for recreational use.
Opioids differ from opiates in their chemical structure, although
they have similar effects on the human brain and body as
do natural opiates. Like opiates, opioids can be extremely
addictive. So they are often abused and cause a large number
of nonlethal overdoses as well as overdose deaths. Opioids

10 Addiction and Overdose