Canadian policies aim at saving money and lives

Alcohol abuse costs each Canadian $463 per year, more than the cost for cancer. A report recently released by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), "The Avoidable Cost of Alcohol Abuse in Canada 2002," estimated that six proposed interventions could have saved about $1 billion, about 800 lives, close to 26,000 years of life lost to premature death, and more than 88,000 acute care hospital days in Canada per year.