{"id":6377,"date":"2022-04-22T06:17:58","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T13:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377"},"modified":"2022-04-22T08:15:44","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T15:15:44","slug":"the-economic-impact-of-drug-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377","title":{"rendered":"The Economic Impact of Drug Use"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many readers will have noticed that, practically everywhere you go, you see “Help Wanted” signs.\u00a0 I’m in my seventies, and at no point have I seen as many as I see now.\u00a0 What’s behind this?<\/p>\n

One big answer is tanking labor force participation:\u00a0 More and more people of working age are simply opting not to get a job.\u00a0 This is a curious phenomenon.\u00a0 Although my family was well off, when I reached working age, not getting a job was never even considered an option.\u00a0 The economic analysts at Axios, which has a generally liberal bent, provide one answer about what’s different now.\u00a0 I quote part of its newsletter<\/a> below.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Driving the news:<\/strong>:\u00a0 Between 9% and 26% of the decline in workforce participation between February 2020 and January 2022, among people aged 25 to 34, is probably due to a rise in dependency on substances like opioids and methamphetamines. That’s according to findings in a paper released this week by the National Bureau of Economic Research.<\/a><\/p>\n

In recent months, labor force participation increased \u2014 it’s now a half-percentage point lower than pre-pandemic. And 18% to 52% of that remaining shortfall could be from those struggling with substance abuse, says Karen Kopecky, an economist at the Atlanta Fed and co-author of the paper.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Specific data on how many more people turned to these substances during the pandemic is not yet available. So, to arrive at this conclusion, the researchers backed into it.<\/p>\n

They had a rough sense of how substance abuse pushes down workforce participation: Prior research shows that opioid users’ labor force participation rate is 13 percentage points lower than the rate for nonusers, and for methamphetamine users, it’s 16 points lower, they noted.<\/p>\n

And, the researchers found 17,522 more deaths in the U.S. attributable to opioid and meth use than were expected between April 2020 and June 2021.<\/p>\n

Those numbers likely reflect an increase in abuse of these drugs, Kopecky says. (Some could be due to a decline in available medical care or a shift in opioid consumption toward more deadly fentanyl.)<\/p>\n

Using the additional death numbers, the study estimates that the number of substance abusers increased by about 2.8 million during the time period.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The increase in drug abuse is related to a broader problem:<\/strong> The mental and physical health issues also driving the labor shortage, as Axios’ Felix Salmon wrote about last year.<\/p>\n

Long COVID could be keeping 1.6 million out of the labor market as well, according to one recent estimate.<\/p>\n

Flashback:<\/strong> A surge in opioid abuse dating back to the early 2000s was already keeping an increasing number of prime-age workers out of the labor force. The pandemic worsened the situation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

**********************************<\/p>\n

CJLF takes no position on the legalization of marijuana.\u00a0 But hard drugs are a different matter, and the economic data show that the damage they cause spreads far beyond “merely” the tens of thousands of overdose deaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many readers will have noticed that, practically everywhere you go, you see “Help Wanted” signs.\u00a0 I’m in my seventies, and at no point have I seen as many as I see now.\u00a0 What’s behind this? One big answer is tanking labor force participation:\u00a0 More and more people of working age are simply opting not to get a job.\u00a0 This is a curious phenomenon.\u00a0 Although my family was well off, when I reached working age, not getting a job was never even considered an option.\u00a0 The economic analysts at Axios, which has a generally liberal bent, provide one answer about what’s different now.\u00a0 I quote part of its newsletter below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drugs"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Economic Impact of Drug Use - Crime & Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Economic Impact of Drug Use - Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many readers will have noticed that, practically everywhere you go, you see “Help Wanted” signs.\u00a0 I’m in my seventies, and at no point have I seen as many as I see now.\u00a0 What’s behind this? One big answer is tanking labor force participation:\u00a0 More and more people of working age are simply opting not to get a job.\u00a0 This is a curious phenomenon.\u00a0 Although my family was well off, when I reached working age, not getting a job was never even considered an option.\u00a0 The economic analysts at Axios, which has a generally liberal bent, provide one answer about what’s different now.\u00a0 I quote part of its newsletter below.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CriminalJusticeLegalFoundation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-22T13:17:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-22T15:15:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/FB_DefaultLJ.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bill Otis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bill Otis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377\",\"name\":\"The Economic Impact of Drug Use - Crime & Consequences\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-22T13:17:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-22T15:15:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d089f7e65aa652190318c44070da5e6e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Economic Impact of Drug Use\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\",\"name\":\"Crime & Consequences\",\"description\":\"Crime and criminal law\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d089f7e65aa652190318c44070da5e6e\",\"name\":\"Bill Otis\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?author=6\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Economic Impact of Drug Use - Crime & Consequences","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Economic Impact of Drug Use - Crime & Consequences","og_description":"Many readers will have noticed that, practically everywhere you go, you see “Help Wanted” signs.\u00a0 I’m in my seventies, and at no point have I seen as many as I see now.\u00a0 What’s behind this? One big answer is tanking labor force participation:\u00a0 More and more people of working age are simply opting not to get a job.\u00a0 This is a curious phenomenon.\u00a0 Although my family was well off, when I reached working age, not getting a job was never even considered an option.\u00a0 The economic analysts at Axios, which has a generally liberal bent, provide one answer about what’s different now.\u00a0 I quote part of its newsletter below.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377","og_site_name":"Crime & Consequences","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CriminalJusticeLegalFoundation\/","article_published_time":"2022-04-22T13:17:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-22T15:15:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/FB_DefaultLJ.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Bill Otis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bill Otis","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377","url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377","name":"The Economic Impact of Drug Use - Crime & Consequences","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-04-22T13:17:58+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-22T15:15:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d089f7e65aa652190318c44070da5e6e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6377#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Economic Impact of Drug Use"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/","name":"Crime & Consequences","description":"Crime and criminal law","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d089f7e65aa652190318c44070da5e6e","name":"Bill Otis","url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?author=6"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6377"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6380,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6377\/revisions\/6380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}