Social Costs of Road Accidents under the Influence of Alcohol and Illegal Drugs in the Czech Republic in 2007 - Part I: Law Enforcement Costs
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Methodology of estimating social costs of substance use stems from international guidelines adopted by WHO (Single, et al., 2003), including estimates for road accidents attributable to substance use. The cost structure divides between direct and indirect costs, direc cost consisting of healthcare and law enforcement cost, indirect costs focusing on lost productivity; road accidents also comprise of property damage.
METHOD: As a part of our study of Social costs of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs in 2007, we had asked several institutions to provide us with relevant datasets (major health care insurance company, ministry of interior affairs et al.). The data was grouped into noseological units, and an ethiological factor was generated for them.
Analysis of health-related data was published in Adiktologie 2/2012; this paper focuses on materiál damages and on law-enforcement costs. RESULTS: The social costs of road accidents attributable to alcohol and other psychoactive substances reached 4 125,3 mil CZK in 2007 (0,12 % GDP), out of which 3 862,1 mil CZK (0,11 % GDP) attributable to alcohol and 263,2 mil CZK (0,01 % GDP) was attributable to other psychoactive substances.
For alcohol, the highest share of costs was attributable to law enforcement (73,1 %); for illicit drugs, the greates cost was related to attributable mortality (71,2 %).