Each year, addition to tobacco and opioids costs the state in excess of $8.2 billion. A new study from the Fairbanks Foundation says the findings indicate that that the state needs to do more to curb the problem. Tobacco addiction alone accounts for $6.8 billion of that figure, which includes everything from health care costs to productivity lost on the job when people take time out to smoke. Opiod overdoses killed more than a thousand people in 2014.
