Effects of prescription opioids on employment, earnings, marriage, disability and mortality: Evidence from state opioid control policies

Abstract

This article presents estimates of the effects of state prescription opioid control policies on prescription opioid sales, mortality and socioeconomic outcomes of adults. Results indicate that state implementation of a “modern” Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) is associated with decreases in opioid sales of between 5% and 20% and that pill mill laws are associated with a decrease in opioid sales of between 15% and 40%. While these policies were associated with reductions in prescription opioid sales they were not significantly associated with drug- and opioid-related mortality, although estimates consistently indicated that these policies reduced mortality. In the case of socioeconomic outcomes, we found consistent evidence that the adoption of a “modern” PDMP was associated with small, but statistically significant reductions in employment of 1% to 2%; small reductions in earnings that were not statistically significant for full sample, but were significant and larger for a low-educated sample; and similarly small, marginally significant increases in receipt of public assistance, particularly for women; and a significant, but small (1%) decline in the probability of being married among females. In contrast, pill mill laws were associated with marginally significant increases in employment of 1% to 2%, but only among those ages 18 to 25; small, but insignificant increases in earnings of males of between 2% to 4%; and a significant, but small (1%) decline in the probability of being married.