“While the mortality data for 2024 is incomplete and subject to change, Ohio is now in the ninth consecutive month of a historic and unexpected drop in overdose deaths,” said the organization Harm Reduction Ohio in a statement.
Missouri is seeing a similar trend that appears to be accelerating. After dropping by 10 percent last year, preliminary data shows drug deaths in the state have now fallen roughly 34 percent in the second quarter of 2024.https://www.npr.org/2024/09/18/nx-s1-5107417/overdose-fatal-fentanyl-death-opioid
It’s not just these states. Drug overdose deaths have experienced somewhat of a decline nationwide. They are still sky-high compared to 2019, though:
The COVID damage to the social fabric seems to be healing bit by bit. Of course, it’s also true that there’s a limited number of people capable of dying of a drug overdose, and many of them were wiped out in the preceding few years. The linked article is written in a weirdly gushy tone but there’s a terrible tragedy hiding behind these numbers.
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Yeah, even before I got to the end of your post: this is a mixed bag isn’t it? I mean, I’d love to think it represents people getting into recovery, and succeeding at it, or fewer people getting addicted in the first place, but…
It could also be:
-We’ve reached the tipping point where we’ve killed off more of them, than are joining the pool. If, as some have speculated, there’s a genetic component to addiction… I suppose you could say in a cold, soulless darwinian way that this is a good thing. Evolutionary pressures are in the process of eliminating that from the gene pool in a fairly brutal way.
-Inaccurate reporting. Is it, like crime, now a hot-potato item where local authorities have stopped reporting overdose deaths, or are fudging the numbers, because it makes them look bad? Where would they hide those numbers? Exposure? Heart failure? Covid? Is anybody looking to see if there’s been a concomitant rise in other sorts of deaths, that might be used to hide overdose deaths? Has anybody asked the ambulance crews?
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A large change like that is always complicated. I originally found this article in a tweet that praised Biden for achieving this, and that’s bizarre. What can Biden possibly have to do with this unless he’s personally cutting fentanyl with something less noxious?
It’s kind of weird how people invest a president with these magical powers. Weird and unhealthy.
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Yeah, I don’t see any evidence whatever that anything has happened to the *supply*.
Though we could in part be seeing some lagging effect from the new reluctance to prescribe opiates to absolutely everyone for any reason at all– that should cut down on the number of normal employed productive people getting addicted in the first place.
Probably some of all of those things, and also some other factors. I’d love to see an in-depth look at it from someone with a broader knowledge of the situation.
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Based on the lowering of the stats on murder, rape, robbery, et al. via simple non-reporting of same, one would need to see the primary source data from now on.
It’s too soon to spin airy stories (optimistic or otherwise) based on possibly – even probably – fraudulent data points.
The stories of value are anecdotal: What have you done this week to build community & resilience in your family, and in your area?
Godspeed.
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This week I definitely did my duty. I chaperoned a sporting event for children from 6 Christian schools in the area. My whole body hurts from the effort.
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