CDC:  Fatal opioid overdoses and opioid use disorder cost the US $1.02 trillion in 2017.

The most complete accounting to date of America’s opioid crisis was released by CDC in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

This CDC study expands and updates two prior estimates of the cost of the opioid crisis: a 2016 CDC economic cost study and a 2017 report released by the White House Council of Economic Advisors. In 2017, there were more than 2.1 million people over age 12 with an opioid use disorder, and over 47,000 opioid overdose deaths.

Costs for spending on health care, opioid use disorder treatment, criminal justice, and lost work productivity, as well as estimates of cost for lost quality of life and lives lost were computed in this study.

Key findings include:

• The value of life lost due to overdose deaths was $480.7 billion.
• Opioid use disorder accounted for $471 billion. 

• Almost $35 billion was spent on health care and opioid use disorder treatment. 
• • Healthcare costs were $31.3 billion
  • Opioid use disorder treatment was $3.5 billion
• Criminal justice spending accounted for $14.8 billion.

You can find more information here on CDC’s response to the opioid overdose epidemic.

You can also read more on our Economics of Injury and Violence Prevention web page.