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Addiction Control Policies or There's no Such Thing as a Free Lunch
Author(s) -
Maynard Alan,
Powell Melanie
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
british journal of addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0952-0481
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1985.tb02539.x
Subject(s) - public economics , control (management) , activity based costing , addiction , set (abstract data type) , business , health policy , externality , economics , actuarial science , health care , marketing , microeconomics , computer science , medicine , economic growth , psychiatry , management , programming language
Summary This paper sets out the characteristics of the basic economic approach to evaluating addiction control policy. It emphasises the importance of costing policy prior to implementation in an attempt to highlight the waste of resources which can result from ad hoc policy choice. Every policy choice is taken at the cost of another and if such costs are evaluated and minimised, limited funds can be spent most efficiently. The example used is the cost to the health of Europeans from EEC market controls such as the Common Agricultural Policy wine policy. These and similar costs must be considered if recent moves to set up an EEC Health Policy are to be fulfilled.