The economic toll of the opioid epidemic in the United States rose to nearly $1.5 trillion in 2020, an increase of $487 billion over the prior year, according to a new report by the congressional Joint Economic Committee. The cost also represents an increase of about $400 billion, or 37%, from 2017, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last measured the cost of the crisis.
The report suggests that the true cost of the opioid epidemic may be even higher — and that it’s likely to keep rising given the increase in fatal opioid overdoses in 2021, when nearly 81,000 such deaths were recorded.
