Opioid Addiction By The Numbers

Last week, we covered the recent $3.3 billion in Congressional appropriations to address opioid addiction in the United States (see How Far Does $3.3 Billion Go?). The figure $3.3 billion may seem like a big number (and it is), but it is dwarfed by the annual economic costs of opioid addiction on our economy—now estimated at $95.8 billion.

Since 2001, the economic cost of the U.S. opioid epidemic has exceeded a total of $1 trillion, rising from an annual cost of $29.1 billion in 2001 to the $95.8 billion figure—with a . . .