Overdose deaths from all drugs, including opioids, have risen to more than 110,000 in the 12-month period that ended last September. The vast majority of those deaths near 80% involved fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.

State legislatures have been active in passing legislation to address the crisis and enacting more than 180 bills in 2022 and 2023, most of them focusing on harm reduction strategies such as medication-assisted treatment. However, the number of deaths remain stubbornly high.

On this podcast, we sat down with Michelle Putnam from the Division of Overdose Prevention at the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Charlie Severance-Medaris, who tracks state policy related to drug overdose prevention for NCSL.

Putnam discussed the steps her office is taking to understand the patterns of drug use and overdoses and working with local public health departments to better equip them to deal with the situation. She also talked about the frustration faced by state and local officials, families, law enforcement, and others at the ongoing death toll despite decades of efforts to control illegal drugs.

Severance-Medaris discussed the trends in legislation aimed at addressing the drug overdose problem and whether states may change their approach. 

Resources

• Injury Prevention Database
• State Options to Increase Access to MAT
• SUD Tx Database
• Nonfatal Overdose Dashboards, Drug Overdose, CDC Injury Center
• Overdose Data to Action: Funded Jurisdictions, Drug Overdose, CDC Injury Center
• Stop Overdose, CDC
• SUDORS Dashboard: Fatal Overdose Data, Drug Overdose, CDC Injury Center