Drug overdoses cost the US about $1 trillion a year, the report says.

Fatal opioid overdoses are believed to cost the US economy $1 trillion a year, government officials have said.

V report Released on Tuesday by the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Synthetic Opioids Illicit Trafficking, synthetic opioids — most notably fentanyl — were found to be responsible for nearly two of three reported drug overdose deaths in the U.S. between June 2021 and June 2021.

More than 100,000 people died from drug overdoses during this period, he said, up 30% from a year earlier. More than 1 million people have died from overdoses in the US since 1999, more than double the number of cases caused by firearms or car accidents, according to the report.

The US Commission on Combating Illicit Trafficking in Synthetic Opioids includes representatives from several federal departments and agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Four members were nominated from the Senate and the House of Representatives.

“In 2018, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the cost of overdose deaths was $696 billion, despite being about two-thirds of annual overdose deaths today,” the commission’s report says.

“So it’s reasonable to assume that drug overdoses are currently costing the United States about $1 trillion a year.”

According to the report, this “staggering amount” was mainly due to lost productivity caused by early deaths, as well as healthcare and criminal justice costs.

President Joe Biden has declared the illegal drug trade a national emergency. December executive order.

In 2017, former President Donald Trump declared the opioid epidemic in America a public health emergency.calling it a source of “national disgrace”.

A report on Tuesday said U.S. synthetic drug trafficking is not only a public health emergency, but “a national emergency that threatens both national security and the country’s economic well-being.”

“In terms of loss of life and damage to the economy, illicit synthetic opioids have the effect of delayed-action weapons of mass destruction in the form of pills,” the authors of the report said.

The commission proposed several ways in which the government could take a “nationwide and coordinated approach” to the opioid crisis, including the creation of a central authority to implement all US drug control policy. The Commission also recommended expanding access to addiction treatment and collaborating with other countries involved in the production and distribution of synthetic opioids.

Council on Foreign Relations called the epidemic one of the worst drug crises in the United States. According to the CFR, more than 1,300 people a week die from opioid-related overdoses, while millions more Americans suffer from opioid addiction.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, rising deaths from opioid overdoses were the cause reduction in life expectancy in the United States. American life expectancy dropped again in 2020, largely due to the pandemic, but opioid-related deaths also played a role.