SUBSTANCE ABUSES HURT ECONOMY, STUDY SHOWS

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The Oklahoma economy loses an estimated $7.6 billion
per year as the result of alcohol abuse and illegal drug use, according to
a new study.

"It costs every household in the state . . . over $1,000 a year" in
federal, state and local taxes, said Michael Lapolla, the director of the
Center for Health Policy Research at Oklahoma State University.

Lapolla presented the study Tuesday to the Governor's Task Force on
Substance Abuse, which had requested the report.

The study says about $5.8 billion of the annual effect is in the "lost
productivity" of illegal drug users and alcohol abusers. Researchers
estimated that 61 percent of lost productivity is due to alcohol abuse,
with 37 percent due to illegal drugs.

The study says people hurt the economy when they become disabled and
nonproductive.

"We assumed that these costs are equally distributed in the population
rather than being concentrated at the lower income levels," the researchers
wrote.

"Therefore, we assumed lost wages to be the state median income rather than
the minimum wage."

Federal taxpayers pay $860 million of the cost in Oklahoma, while state
taxes cover $330 million, and local taxes take care of $130 million, the
researchers say.