Substance Abuse: The Nation’s Number One Health Problem

This major resource provides the big picture on the nation's substance use problem-looking at patterns and trends in use, consequences, and what is being done to address the problem.

Key points from the report include:

• More than 18 million people who use alcohol and almost 5 million who use illicit drugs need addiction treatment.
• More than two-thirds of the funding for alcohol and drug treatment facilities comes from public sources. Half of all funding is from federal, state and local funds. Medicaid and Medicare pay for 21%, private insurance covers 14%, clients pay 10% out-of-pocket, and the remaining 5% is from charitable donations.
• Illicit drug users make more than 527,000 emergency room visits each year for drug related problems.
• Residential drug treatment for cocaine is cheaper per year ($12,467) than probation ($16,691), incarceration ($39,600), untreated addiction ($43,200).

This document is available at www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?id=15707.