Drug Addiction/ Health

Opioid overdose deaths leveling off, but at high level 

2021 was deadliest year on record 

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AFTER A SHARP SPIKE in opioid-related overdose deaths during the COVID pandemic, the numbers appear to be leveling off this year, but they still remain higher than before COVID hit, according to new data from the Department of Public Health. 

Gov. Charlie Baker, in a statement, noted that since taking office in 2015, he has signed two laws aimed at addressing opioid addiction and has worked with lawmakers to increase funding for prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery services. “We are proud of our efforts to make these services more accessible and available to individuals and their families across Massachusetts, but also recognize that the work must continue, especially given the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic which has exacerbated substance misuse here and across the country,” Baker said. 

The latest figures show that in the first nine months of 2022, there were 1,696 confirmed or estimated opioid overdose deaths in Massachusetts. That’s about 25 deaths fewer than during the same time period in 2021, but still far higher than in the prior two years. Reports from the first nine months of 2020 and 2019 showed an estimated 1,517 overdose deaths in 2020 and 1,129 in 2019. 

“Though we are finally seeing a decline in deaths from the staggering figures of the last two years, we cannot forget that each number still represents a life lost too soon and devastation for families and communities across the Commonwealth,” said Julie Burns, president and CEO of RIZE Massachusetts, a nonprofit foundation working to end the opioid epidemic. 

The latest report also contained preliminary full-year data for 2021, which show that it was the deadliest year on record for overdoses, with 2,301 deaths. Opioid overdose deaths had been steadily increasing at a rapid pace since the early 2010s. They started to decline around 2017, with sustained efforts by state policymakers to address the opioid epidemic. However, the COVID pandemic, which increased isolation and mental health problems while cutting people off from support and services, saw the numbers of deaths sharply increase again. Until 2021, the highest number of annual overdose deaths ever recorded had been 2,110 in 2016. 

If deaths continue at their current rate for all of 2022, there would be fewer deaths this year than last year, but still more than in any other year before that.  

The DPH report finds that fentanyl, a dangerous synthetic opioid, continues to be a major driver of deaths. Fentanyl was present in 94 percent of opioid-related deaths where a toxicology report was available. The second most-present drug was cocaine, which was identified in 53 percent of toxicology reports.  

For the last few months, authorities have also started regularly identifying the presence of a new non-opioid drug, a veterinary sedative called xylazine, which was present in 5 percent of toxicology reports. NPR reported this summer that the sedative for animals, which is not approved for human consumption, is now being added to some street drugs, potentially to extend the high or to substitute for more expensive drugs.  

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Shira Schoenberg

Reporter, CommonWealth
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About Shira Schoenberg

Shira Schoenberg is a reporter at CommonWealth magazine. Shira previously worked for more than seven years at the Springfield Republican/MassLive.com where she covered state politics and elections, covering topics as diverse as the launch of the legal marijuana industry, problems with the state's foster care system and the elections of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Gov. Charlie Baker. Shira won the Massachusetts Bar Association's 2018 award for Excellence in Legal Journalism and has had several stories win awards from the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Shira covered the 2012 New Hampshire presidential primary for the Boston Globe. Before that, she worked for the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, where she wrote about state government, City Hall and Barack Obama's 2008 New Hampshire primary campaign. Shira holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

About Shira Schoenberg

Shira Schoenberg is a reporter at CommonWealth magazine. Shira previously worked for more than seven years at the Springfield Republican/MassLive.com where she covered state politics and elections, covering topics as diverse as the launch of the legal marijuana industry, problems with the state's foster care system and the elections of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Gov. Charlie Baker. Shira won the Massachusetts Bar Association's 2018 award for Excellence in Legal Journalism and has had several stories win awards from the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Shira covered the 2012 New Hampshire presidential primary for the Boston Globe. Before that, she worked for the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, where she wrote about state government, City Hall and Barack Obama's 2008 New Hampshire primary campaign. Shira holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

Demographically, among those who died from an overdose in the first nine months of 2022, 72 percent were male and 48 percent were between ages 25 and 44. Blacks and Hispanics were overrepresented in overdose deaths, comprising 11 percent and 15 percent of overdose deaths, respectively. 

Communities that saw large increases in overdose deaths between 2020 and 2021 included Attleboro, Burlington, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, New Bedford, Pittsfield, Taunton, Templeton, Ware, and Westfield.