The Costs of Alcohol, Illegal Drugs, And Tobacco in Canada, 2002 * (Report‪)‬

THE BURDEN AND COST OF SUBSTANCE USE and misuse in established market economies is enormous (Anderson and Baumberg, 2006; Andlin-Sobocki and Rehm, 2005; Collins and Lapsley, 2002; Ezzati et al., 2002; Harwood, 2000), and Canada is no exception. The last systematic estimate on the burden of substance use and misuse in Canada was undertaken a decade ago for the year 1992 (Single et al., 1996, 1998, 1999). The overall cost of substance use and misuse for that year was estimated at Can. $18.5 billion, which represented Can. $649 per capita. Legal substances (i.e., alcohol and tobacco) accounted for most of these costs. The study proved to be a valuable resource for policy making and health care planning in Canada. However, the study's numbers have become outdated over the years, as changes have occurred in the Canadian population, in key health behaviors, in health service-use patterns, and in law enforcement practices. To fill this gap, the present study was initiated in 2003 and finalized in 2006. In addition to providing economic data relevant to health care planning, the study was conceptualized to provide the basis for calculation of avoidable costs resulting from a number of different policy changes (for methodology of estimating avoidable costs see Collins et al., 2006). Method