Health-care costs associated with substance use are the highest in the territories, according to a new report prepared by the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.

The report, titled Canadian substance use costs and harms (2007-2014), breaks down the cost of substance use in Canada from 2007 to 2014 by cost type, substance and province and territory.
The per-person healthcare costs from substance use are the highest in the territories SA国际影视传媒渞eflecting especially high rates of alcohol and tobacco use,SA国际影视传媒� the report stated.

In 2014, the national average for overall per-person costs attributed to substance abuse was $1081.

In the Yukon that number jumps to $1929, with the Northwest Territories spending $2329 per person and Nunavut spending $2652.

In that same year, substance use-related healthcare cost Canada a whopping $11.1 billion.

SA国际影视传媒淐osts associated with the use of current legally available substances, alcohol and tobacco were estimated to contribute approximately 91% of all healthcare costs attributable to substance use,SA国际影视传媒� the report stated.

Nationally, tobacco makes up 53.1 per cent of total healthcare costs amounting to $5.9 billion, followed by alcohol at 38 per cent at a cost of $4.2 billion. Opioids were the third-highest cost to the healthcare system accounting for 2.8 per cent of costs at $300 million. Contributing to these costs were an estimated 255,600 hospitalizations attributable to substance use in 2014. 145,801 or 57 per cent of hospitalizations were attributed to tobacco alone, followed by alcohol at 34.4 per cent accounting for 87,911 hospitalizations. Opioids are again the third-highest at 6,982 hospitalizations.

But in the territories, the healthcare costs attributable to substance use are more than double the national average of $345 per person. In the Yukon that number is $720, in the Northwest Territories $723 and that cost more than tripled in Nunavut at $1045 per person.

SA国际影视传媒淚n 2014, the per-person economic costs were estimated to be higher in the territories than the provinces, reflecting in particular their higher rates of tobacco smoking and alcohol use and higher cost of health care delivery,SA国际影视传媒� the report stated.