Ohio AG Yost says study shows connection between stimulus checks and opioid overdose deaths

Ohio’s attorney general says a study done by his office shows a connection between federal stimulus checks sent out during the first months of the pandemic and a rise in opioid overdose deaths.

Republican Attorney General Dave Yost said an investigator who works on the opioid crisis in his office assembled a team to look into stimulus payments after the pandemic began and deaths from opioid overdoses.

The team used data from the Ohio Department of Health and produced a peer-reviewed study that Yost said showed a causal connection between stimulus checks sent out to help people suffering economically in the second quarter of 2020 and opioid deaths, which hit a record in Ohio not long afterward.

Opioid deaths outside Ohio soared as well, with a record of over 100,000 deaths across the country, a 28% increase over the previous year.

"There is a connection. It's not the only connection, but there is a causal connection between the stimulus money and the spike we saw in overdose deaths," Yost said.

Yost said the wide distribution of stimulus checks shows broad measures create broad impacts, "and some of those impacts are unintended. The only law I like to say that is universally obeyed is the law of unintended consequences. That's certainly what we have here."

Yost said he’s not trying to cast blame on the Trump administration, which sent out those checks, but that it’s important to consider how to structure payments like this if they happen in the future.

“Facts are not mean. They're just the facts. And we shouldn't ignore them. We ignore facts at our peril," Yost said. "Let's think about what it means and how it means we can get better."

The study “COVID-19 Economic Impact Payments and Opioid Deaths” will be published in the April 2022 volume of the International Journal of Drug Policy.

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