I think Nutt's study is valid and has its place. I am currently looking at ways non profit organisations can measure their social impact. Being able to turn around to a funder and say, last year every £1 given to our organisation resulted in £3.40 worth of social value.
As an example, Fab Pad is a project that supports young homeless people to sustain new tenancies. An SROI evaluation carried out on Fab Pad revealed that for every £1 invested by the government in support, £8.38 of social return was derived in reduced health care costs, reduced welfare benefits expenditure and reduced costs of repeat homelessness.
Perhaps Prof Nutt should have converted his findings into costs. What is the cost we as a society pay for binge drinking and alcoholism? How much of our police/ambulance/hospital/street cleaning resources are deployed dealing with binge drinking/alcoholism compared to other drug use? Would the cost of banning alcohol and the subsequent loss of tax revenue, be less than this figure? |