Ten Reasons to Take Action Against Addiction: # 6: Economic Burden

Any family that has had one of their members addicted to alcohol, prescription or illicit drugs knows the cost of that addiction in anguish, fear and sadness. However, there is another cost that every family pays for addiction, whether someone close to them is addicted or not. That is the economic burden of addiction, paid for in health care costs, low productivity, welfare, accidents, property damage, the legal system and incarceration, crime, child and domestic abuse and all the public and private facilities that provide counseling, rehabilitation and treatment.

In 1992, this cost was estimated at $246 billion dollars. In 2006, according to the President of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, the bill was approaching $1 trillion. This means that every person in the U.S. is paying close to $3,000 a year, one way or another, for the substance abuse problems in this country.

“What happens on a national scale also happens on a small scale to families,” noted Derry Hallmark, Director of Admissions at Narconon Arrowhead. Narconon Arrowhead is one of the country’s leading drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, located in Canadian, Oklahoma. “Very often, families facing a loved one’s addiction problem don’t realize what they are looking at. Addicts routinely become manipulative of those close to them so they can continue to get the alcohol or drugs they are addicted to. This manipulation can create financial hardships for families.”

Addicts commonly complain of an unfair boss, an unjust arrest, bad breaks, thefts or threats and so prompt family members to help them out of a fix. But in truth, they are hiding their addiction behind a smokescreen. Many addicts empty bank accounts or steal items out of the home to finance their addiction. This can go on for years, bankrupting a family. Then when the truth comes out and the family wants to get the addict into rehab, they may be financially unable to do so.

To read the rest of this article, please go to: Economic Burden. Or visit the website for Narconon Arrowhead.