They provide the update in two useful versions: a report "Canadian Substance Use Costs and Harms 2015-2017" and a data visualization tool.
Their study is a useful reminder that despite falling smoking rates, tobacco is the drug that is the biggest driver of health care costs and death.
Deaths from legal drugs eclipse those from illegal drugs.
This study estimates that in 2017, tobacco caused 6 in 10 deaths associated with substance abuse and alcohol caused an additional 1 in 4. Opioids were responsible for 1 in 15 substance-use related deaths. (Because illicit drugs tend to kill at a younger age, they were however associated with a greater number of potential yeras of productive life lost.)
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| Canadian Substance Use Costs and Harms 2015-2017 CCSA |
Legal drugs drive health care costs
Healthcare costs from substance use exceeded $13 billion in 2017 -- with about half caused by smoking. These costs included inpatient hospitalizations, day surgeries, emergency department visits, specialized treatment for SU disorders, physician time and prescription drugs (and were not able to include some costs for Quebec).
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| Canadian Substance Use Costs and Harms 2015-2017 CCSA |
There were no criminal justice costs associated with tobacco
Those concerned that Canada's policing system is not actively engaged with trying to reduce contraband cigarette sales will not be comforted by this study's estimates that the criminal justice system spent no money policing offences related to tobacco. (Selling contraband tobacco has been a Criminal Code offence since 2014.)
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| Canadian Substance Use Costs and Harms 2015-2017 CCSA |
Tobacco control does not receive a proportionate share of prevention investments.
The study also included "other direct costs" associated with substance abuse. Among these were federal funding for research and prevention. obacco use may cause more than half the deaths and half the health-care costs, but it received less than one-quarter of federal investment in prevention and research.
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| Canadian Substance Use Costs and Harms |
Different methods - and different data sources - will produce different results
In this study, the authors based their calculations on smoking rates produced by the (now-defunct) Canadian Tobacco Alcohol and Drug Survey (13% in 2017). Had they used estimates produced by the Canadian Community Health Survey (16% in 2017), they would have included the costs related to an additional 1 million smokers.
Three years ago the Conference Board of Canada produced estimates of "The Costs of Tobacco Use in Canada" for 2012. They similarly found a $6 billion cost for direct health care costs, but their estimate for costs related to lost productivity were much higher ($9 billion vs. $6 billion).
