ANDERSON — Opioid misuse has cost Madison County more than $2 billion since 2003, ranking fourth in the state for financial impact.
Between 2003 and 2017, the opioid crisis has cost the county $2,229,202,236 in medical costs associated with opioid overdoses, strain on police and the courts as well as lost productivity or underemployment for local businesses, according to a new study completed by two Indiana University professors.
Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus Associate Professor of Finance Ryan Brewer and Indiana University-Bloomington doctoral candidate Kayla Freeman found costs associated with the public health epidemic has cost each resident $17,214 in the 14-year study period.
“Illuminating the level of cumulative damages is merely the first step on the road to recovery,” wrote the authors in the study. “We believe the effective solution set to this vast and costly epidemic will include thoughts and ideas transcending boundaries and bridging communities.”
The yearly cost of opioid misuse has risen 13 times over between 2003 and 2017, according to the study, with last year’s cost estimated at $192,522,840.
“That is a stunning, stunning number,” said Madison County Chamber of Commerce CEO and President Dirk Webb. “There is something challenging about a problem that doesn’t seem to go away and continues to grow.”
For Webb, the question isn’t necessarily what’s been lost to the opioid epidemic, though the lives and families lost or disrupted are close to his heart. Instead, he wonders what Madison County could have become over the past decade if those dollars were instead invested toward good.
“Where would Madison County be without that?” he asked. “As a Chamber director, I can only imagine what the future would look like if that number wasn’t there.”
Without any solutions in sight, it’s estimated the state will continue to see billions of dollars in losses associated just with deaths and injuries connected to the epidemic between 2003 and 2017.
In Madison County, the study estimated $1,009,057,657 more dollars will be lost in perpetuity from overdose deaths in the county.
Though the study expects costs to continue to rise, there are some programs that could help to reduce the cost for all communities across the state.
After stopping the program in late 2017, the Madison County commissioners unanimously voted to relaunch the county’s needle exchange program.
The two-year program will emphasize testing for HIV and hepatitis C, a syringe exchange, vaccinations for hepatitis C and B, and an outpatient detoxification plan.
Dr. Kristina Box, state health commissioner, said the Indiana State Department of Health is supportive of the needle exchange programs in the state.
“It is important around the state, which is dealing with an opioid epidemic,” she said. “It is an important way of getting people into treatment.”