LANSING — A new report found that opioid addiction in Michigan cost the state nearly $40 billion in just 2024.
The research found that substance use costs individuals and their surrounding communities through lowering quality of life and productivity, while also increasing the cost of healthcare.
That figure includes more than $10 billion in lost wages, $7 billion from local and federal governments and nearly $20 billion from companies paying for insurance and accounting for lost productivity.
The report from Avalere Health analyzed the impacts of opioid use on individuals, families, governments and the rest of society. Their research found that the US economy lost close to $4 trillion to opioid use last year.
“Michigan has been ahead of the curve in curbing overdose deaths, but there are still a lot of things that have not changed,” said Pam Lynch, executive director of Harm Reduction Michigan.
Lynch says that combating opioid use and addiction begins with supporting people already in difficult situations.
“We really need to look at, how do we reduce the need for people to medicate emotionally? Which is what happens people are medicating trauma and sometimes physical pain as well as emotional pain,” she said.
The report says that opioid users in Michigan lost the equivalent of $123 billion through reduced quality of life and earlier deaths.
According to the report, behavioral therapy can save the equivalent of $144,000 per patient, while therapy combined with medication can save nearly $300,000 per patient.
Donna Dunn, clinical supervisor of Northern Michigan Substance Abuse Services, says that more work needs to be done to reduce the stigma around opioid use and seeking treatment for addiction.
“If this was any other medical disorder — if this was like a heart clinic or a diabetes clinic and somebody had to come here for heart meds or come here for insulin, people really wouldn’t bat an eye at it,” she said.
Experts also say that the government should continue to invest in emergency responses like naloxone or Narcan, which can help someone survive an overdose that may otherwise be fatal.
Dunn says that preventative treatments like methadone can better someone’s physical and mental health drastically and that she’d like to see greater access across Northern Michigan.
“It just improves other areas of their lives, like their relationships with their significant others, their families, their work, their relationship — for some folks — with the legal system,” she said.
More information on opioid treatment resources can be found with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.