The cost of future problem drug use associated with young people’s behaviors and circumstances

Abstract

The UK Drug Strategy includes the objective of preventing young people from becoming drug misusers. It is the use of heroin, crack and heavy use of cocaine that accounts for most of the costs associated with drug use. However, research on the efficiency of young people’s interventions at reducing such problem drug use is limited by the expense associated with long-term evaluations. An alternative to undertaking expensive long-term research is to model the probable longer-term problem drug use associated with young people’s behavior and circumstances. This paper estimates the economic cost of future problem drug use associated with young people’s behavior and circumstances, such as their cannabis, cigarette and alcohol use, delinquency and the drug use of their parents and peers.

Keywords::

• cost
• drug use
• economic
• risk factor
• young people

Ethical conduct of research

The author states that he has obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or has followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This research was undertaken as part of a broader project on the cost–effectiveness of interventions to reduce young people’s drug use commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.