According to the latest report from the WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being (WV Partnership) and the WV Prevention Resource Center (WVPRC), the financial impact of drug and alcohol abuse in West Virginia is more than $1.6 billion annually. The report projects costs could rise to more than $2.3 billion by 2017 if urgent actions are not taken.
This report is the final in a series of reports that examine the cost of substance abuse on West Virginia’s criminal justice, healthcare, education, welfare and workforce systems. This final summative report incorporates estimates from all these sectors as well as includes data from the Governor’s Highway Safety Program (GHSP) and the Commission on Drunk Driving Prevention (CDDP). Additionally, the report examines the magnitude of substance abuse in WV.
“The high costs of substance abuse presented in all of our reports are actually conservative, because they focus only on direct costs,” said Yetty Shobo, WVPRC Evaluation Specialist and author of the report. “Indirect cost of injuries to innocent parties by substance users and illness not directly due to substance use but that are complicated or extended due to substance use were not estimated. In addition, the cost of tobacco use and abuse is not included in any of the reports because that has been adequately examined in various studies.”
“The Financial Burden of Substance Abuse in West Virginia: Final Report in Series One” was funded with U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention’s Prevention as Community Development: Projects of Regional and National Significance grant funds.
At a drug summit in November 2009, the Governor, the WV Partnership, and the WVPRC released The Governor’s Comprehensive Plan to Address Substance Abuse in WV. The plan outlines the necessary infrastructure and resources to effectively combat substance abuse. Guided by the Blueprint for States: Policies to Improve the Ways States Organize and Deliver Alcohol and Drug Prevention & Treatment, the plan specifically recommends investment of state funding to support county-level coalitions/initiatives, regional and state projects, prevention research and prevention system infrastructure. The WV legislature has expressed significant interest in this issue, however funding has not yet been allocated.
The WV Partnership, created by Executive Order 8-04, is WV’s Governor-appointed substance abuse prevention and early intervention planning body. The WVPRC staffs the WV Partnership and provides support for WV’s community prevention and well-being initiatives.
Additional information about the WV Partnership, the WVPRC, The Comprehensive Plan to Address Substance Abuse in WV, and the Costs of Substance Abuse Project is available at www.PrevNet.org.
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