Single Eric
University of Toronto, and Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, 6 Mervyn Avenue, Toronto M9B 1M6, Ontario, Canada.
J Gambl Stud. 2003 Summer;19(2):215-33. doi: 10.1023/a:1023633432745.
This presentation describes a recently developed set of guidelines for estimating the economic costs of substance abuse, summarizes the findings from a Canadian study that utilized these guidelines, and discusses the implications to the potential development of guidelines for estimating the costs and benefits of gambling. The guidelines for estimating the costs of substance abuse present a general framework of costs to be included and discuss methodological issues such as the definition of abuse; determination of causality; comparison of the demographic and human capital approaches; the treatment of private costs; the treatment of nonworkforce mortality and morbidity; the treatment of research, education, law enforcement costs, the estimation of avoidable costs and budgetary impact of substance abuse, and the significance of intangible costs. Utilizing these guidelines, a study was undertaken to estimate the economic costs of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs to Canadian society in 1992. Based on this experience, it is argued that cost/benefit research should be conducted by multidisciplinary teams, that the real value of such work lies more in the detailed findings than in the bottom line results, and that focus should be placed on developing an ongoing process for developing consensus on how to conduct studies of the costs and benefits of gambling, rather than attempting to find a precise methodology that everyone agrees upon.
本报告介绍了一套最近制定的用于估算药物滥用经济成本的指导方针，总结了一项利用这些指导方针的加拿大研究的结果，并讨论了对估算赌博成本和收益的指导方针潜在发展的影响。估算药物滥用成本的指导方针提出了一个应包括的成本总体框架，并讨论了方法学问题，如滥用的定义；因果关系的确定；人口统计学和人力资本方法的比较；私人成本的处理；非劳动力死亡率和发病率的处理；研究、教育、执法成本的处理，药物滥用可避免成本和预算影响的估算，以及无形成本的重要性。利用这些指导方针，开展了一项研究，以估算1992年酒精、烟草和非法药物对加拿大社会造成的经济成本。基于这一经验，有人认为成本/效益研究应由多学科团队进行，此类工作的真正价值更多地在于详细的研究结果而非最终结果，并且应着重建立一个持续的过程，以就如何开展赌博成本和收益研究达成共识，而不是试图找到一种人人都认可的精确方法。
