Details for LEADER DEliverable D1.2 - Review of existing guidance documents in estimating social costs of drugs

Abstract

The last decades have seen the emergence of a strong interest from different stakeholders (policymakers, scholars, authorities) with regards to the definition of rigorous and reliable estimates of the social costs of illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Credible estimates in this setting would provide relevant information related to the extent of the problems related to the use of these substances and the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing it. Nonetheless, few countries have attempted to estimate these costs and the estimates they generated are jeopardized by the various methodological disputes that characterize the research in this field.

The purpose of this work is to provide an overview of the indications coming from published guidelines for the estimation of the social costs of illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco.. The methodological issues that will be presented will include the different approaches proposed by the literature and, were available, the effects of the adoption of different methods on final estimates. As a result of the systematic review, two frameworks are proposed for future research: a minimum standard and an ideal framework for performing such estimations.