RICHMOND, Va. -- A new research study from VCU's Center on Society and Health shows the overwhelming financial cost of the opioid epidemic on families in Virginia.
The report, based on most recent data from 2021, suggests the opioid epidemic is costing Virginia's taxpayers more than $5 billion. The data suggests roughly $3.2 billion of cost results in "lost labor" and about $2.7 billion in lost by household.
According to Derek Chapman, the Interim Director of VCU's Center on Society and Health, those costs are calculated by the money lost due to those struggling with addiction being incarcerated or out of a job due to their illness, or even as a result of death, causing a massive financial burden on families.
"This $5 billion dollar estimate, is really, just to show the cost of not taking action to address this," Chapman said. "There are significant long-term financial benefits of preventing and treating substance use disorder. Prevention is a little money up front, and is a lot of benefit down the road."
Kerri Rhodes, who works with Chesterfield County Jail's HARP Program, lost her son Taylor to an opioid addiction that stemmed from surgical treatment.
As a licensed therapist who works with those who battle opioid addiction, she said the findings are just a starting point for policy makers.
"I think this report is helpful in looking at, 'OK, where are we spending our money?' Because it's not working," Rhodes said. "We need a lot of upstream measures that we don't have in place. We need things for people who are already in the river, like treatment right now. People can't wait a month. People who overdose, can't keep going to Emergency Departments and then be put back on the street, being stripped, having been narcan-ed, and then go right back to using. They're so at risk for overdose."
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Rhodes said there are limited resources in Central Virginia for those trying to detox safely, as well as safe options for surgical recoveries that don't involve opioids.
Rhodes said other upstream resources, like mental health services or social services for those who may be more at-risk, are scarce.
"We really have a shortage, and I think Virginia's not the only state, but of mental health providers. Of licensed mental health providers. We do not have enough. You could say, 'Well, we're going to create all these programs.' Well, where are you going to get the people to provide the competent care?" Rhodes asked.
Chauncey Beaston, who started the Where You're At Foundation, knows the cost of incarceration and its impact on those struggling with addiction first-hand.
"We have decades of data that these punitive measures don't work and they are far more expensive than these public health interventions," Beaston said. "We need to have people with lived experience at the table."
Patricia Godsey, who lost her daughter Cassie to an opioid overdose three years ago, said she was not shocked to see the findings, citing the struggles daughter faced while battling addiction.
"I think we need to take a hard look at what we've been doing, and we're pretty much rinsing and repeating the same things," Godsey said.
Godsey and Rhodes said they've shared their experience with policymakers, advocating for more resources upfront to prevent staggering costs for families down the road.
"It's missed opportunities along the way," Godsey said. "Let us tell you our story. Please listen to us."
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"I've sat in Congress and those rooms and what everybody wants to talk about is cost. And we've got to stop prioritizing profit over people, and when we start doing that, we're going to make some headway," Rhodes said.
The research study suggests that on average, six Virginians die each day to an opioid overdose.
The numbers on a national scale are more staggering, Rhodes said, with the numbers sitting in the 300s.
"It's the equivalent of a 747-jet crashing every day. Can you imagine if that happened every day? What would people do? And as a mom, who knows the costs and what it's like every day to get up and know that this was preventable? We just gotta do better. My ask is to do better."
Godsey, Rhodes, Chapman, and Beaston all in agreement that there's no price advocates, researchers and policy makers can put on a life.
"You can't quantify the real cost of addiction, which is people. There's no price you can put on losing a loved one to the disease of addiction," Rhodes said.
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