Opioid overdose deaths reported in Massachusetts dropped about 10% in 2023 compared to 2022, according to statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday. And nationwide, fatal overdoses from any type of drug decreased by about 3%.
“The flattening and beginning of a decrease in the curve of overdose deaths is incredibly positive news, especially after years of rising and rising rates of death. … Hopefully this is a testament to some of the work that's been going on both nationally and here in Massachusetts,” said Dr. Sarah Wakeman, the senior medical director for substance use disorder at Mass General Brigham.
“And also, I think the levels of death are still unacceptably high, and we have a lot more work to do,” Wakeman added.
The CDC's figures show 2,099 reported deaths in 2023 from opioid overdoses in Massachusetts, compared to 2,334 in 2022. According to the latest figures from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the state is on track to record its eighth year in a row of more than 2,000 people dying from opioid overdoses. The department is due to share the state's final figures on 2023 overdose deaths next month.
“It's still too soon to celebrate; we have really yet to bend the corner,” said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, the medical director for the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at the Heller School at Brandeis University. “The number of people who’ve lost their lives to an opioid overdose deaths, nationally and in Massachusetts, there were just thousands of people who have died. But I do think the latest data gives us some reason to be hopeful.”
Dierdre Calvert, the director of the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, agreed with that cautious optimism.
“I think that we've had a really consistent laser focus on turning the tide. But ... it's not just one intervention,” Calvert said.
Calvert cited DPH’s distribution of more than 260,000 doses of Naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose. She also said the department has given out almost 90,000 test strips for fentanyl, a dangerously strong opioid that she says has contaminated the entire street drug supply in Massachusetts and is involved in the vast majority of overdoses in the state.
She said a continued multi-pronged approach to the opioid epidemic is the only way to try to reduce the large number of deaths every year.
“We are pushing for overdose prevention centers,” Calvert said. “We have low-threshold permanent housing where sobriety is not a requirement ... we are pushing, for every methadone program to utilize the flexibilities that have come out in the new rules from the federal government to allow more flexibility for methadone. … We are using every tool in our toolbox to turn the tide, and get the message out about discrimination, stigma, and that we have a poisoned drug supply.”
