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Boston sees lowest number of opioid overdose deaths in 9 years, new data shows
The Boston Public Health Commission released data last week that showed a 38% decrease in overdose deaths compared to 2023.
Boston saw its lowest number of opioid-related deaths last year since 2015, according to newly released data.
The Boston Public Health Commission released data Thursday that showed a 38% decrease in overdose deaths compared to 2023. Opioid deaths dropped 26% across the United States.
Black and Latinx residents have been disproportionately impacted by the opioid crisis but saw a 58% and 48% fall in deaths, respectively.
“Not only does this data represent the impact of our collective efforts to combat the opioid crisis, but emphasizes our continued support to communities who are disproportionately affected,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement.
In 2022, 352 Boston residents died from overdoses, a 7% increase from the year before and a 36% increase since 2019, shortly before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase since 2019 was over double what the entire state experienced in the same time frame, a 16% increase.
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“It’s been a very demoralizing trend, where we’ve seen oftentimes double-digit year-over-year increases, and so this decline is a welcomed change,” said Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University.
In 2024, Boston distributed over 23,000 doses of naloxone, a medication that is used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose and largely credited to curbing the increase in deaths. The Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan nasal spray as the first over-the-counter naloxone product in March 2023.
Boston and Massachusetts have been “at the frontier” in overdose prevention for decades, Beletsky said, including access to naloxone. The Department of Public Health began the Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution program in 2007 and provided rescue kits to bystanders likely to witness an overdose.
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“Boston has really been on the forefront of naloxone access, and this effort to bring it over the counter is the latest overdue step to increase the broader access,” Beletsky said.
Increased access to opioid use disorder medications methadone and buprenorphine, funding for treatment and recovery programs, and promotion of harm reduction interventions also contributed to the lower rate, said Julie Burns, the CEO of overdose prevention organization RIZE Massachusetts.
“All of these things taken together have really made a dent in the stigma that surrounds people with addiction, and you can definitely attribute those to the reduction in fatal overdoses,” she said.
Burns said her organization works closely with the state and has funded several intervention methods and studies to further aid the crisis. One recent study analyzed the racial and ethnic inequalities in access to treatment for people who recently experienced an overdose.
At the national level, the Trump administration recently released more details of its plan to cut funding from the National Institutes of Health by nearly half and consolidate many of its operating divisions.
“These services are life-saving, and we want to make sure that people continue to have access to them, even as we see a turbulent funding situation,” Beletsky said. “If those services are curtailed, that will be reflected in overdose numbers.”
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Burns said it is important to look beyond the numbers, as they work closely with families who are affected by opioid addiction or overdoses and provide them access to treatment and recovery spots.
“The data represents people who have lost their lives,” she said. “Even though we are seeing a decrease, we’re still seeing about 2,000 fatal overdoses per year [in Massachusetts], and that’s far too many.”
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