Fatal drug overdoses fall in Florida, matching nationwide trend
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The fatal drug overdose rate fell 4% nationwide and nearly 10% in Florida, per new CDC data.
Why it matters: Overdose deaths seem to be falling as pandemic-era isolation ebbs and access to life-saving medications like Naloxone grows.
Driving the news: The age-adjusted rate of Florida fatal drug overdoses fell from 35.2 per 100,000 people in 2022 to 31.7 in 2023, the CDC says.
- The rate for synthetic opioids — including fentanyl — dropped from 24.3 to 21.5.
Zoom out: Florida medical examiners reported a similar downward trend in their 2023 Drugs Identified in Deceased Persons report.
- Total drug-related deaths decreased by 5%, or about 800 deaths.
- Fentanyl remained the deadliest drug statewide, causing nearly 5,000 deaths. Still, that's a 12% drop from 2022. At its peak in 2021, the drug killed close to 5,800 people.
Zoom in: Deaths caused by fentanyl dropped in Tampa Bay, too.
- In Hillsborough County, fentanyl killed 393 people in 2023, down from 480 in 2022.
- In the medical examiner district made up of Pinellas and Pasco counties, fentanyl deaths dropped from 680 in 2022 to 579 in 2023.
The big picture: In the U.S., the overdose rate fell from 32.6 to 31.3, per the CDC. The rate for synthetic opioids also decreased, from 22.7 to 22.2.
Yes, but: States including Alaska, Oregon and Washington bucked the national trend, reporting major increases in their fatal OD rates.
- Even their absolute numbers are relatively high: 2023 saw 49.4 fatal overdoses per 100,000 people in Alaska, 40.8 in Oregon, and 42.4 in Washington, compared to 31.3 nationally.
Caveat: Some areas with big drops in overdose rate still have relatively high absolute numbers.
- The fatal OD rate per 100,000 people in Maine, for instance, dropped 17.3% between 2022 and 2023 — but the state still had an overall rate of 44.9 per 100,000 people in 2023.
The bottom line: The broad national data shows a welcome trend, but the opioid crisis rages on in some pockets of the country like a wildfire stubbornly refusing to be snuffed out.