MA Opioid Deaths Highest Ever In 2022, Racial Disparities Worsening: State

MASSACHUSETTS — For the third year in a row, Massachusetts has counted a record number of overdose deaths, with about 2,357 dying an opioid-related death in 2022.

The new record has prompted calls for state officials to step up efforts to reduce overdose deaths, which worsened sharply in the state during the peak pandemic years. The situation has also been complicated by the emergence of xylazine, a drug often mixed with fentanyl that resists overdose treatments like Narcan.

Public health officials are also drawing attention to growing racial disparities in overdose data. The number of black men and black women who died of an overdose in 2022 increased 47 percent and 41 percent, respectively, compared to 2021. Deaths increased 36 percent for Hispanic women between 2021 and 2022.

"These deaths are preventable; every overdose death is a policy failure," Oami Amarasingham, deputy director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association, in response to the new figures. "At the heart of these data is the reality that racial disparities are getting worse: the rate of overdose for Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic people increased significantly while rates of overdose for white people decreased."

RELATED: Opioid Deaths In Massachusetts Increased In 2021

Prior to the pandemic, overdose deaths reached a high mark of about 2,110 in 2016, with the annual toll declining or remaining flat through 2019 when 2,005 died. The figure jumped to 2,104 in 2020 and 2,300 in 2021, according to state Department of Public Health data.

"We know overdose deaths are preventable," Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robert Goldstein said in a news release. "The pandemic has had a devastating impact on mental health and substance use, especially among marginalized communities. We are working to reverse these troubling trends by continuing to build on our data-driven and equity-based approaches toward responsive support and treatment."

Massachusetts has employed public health-informed harm reduction policies to treat the overdose epidemic, including wide distribution of overdose-reversal drugs. At the same time, the state has seen a worsening homelessness crisis exacerbated by high housing prices, and lawmakers have resisted initiatives like overdose prevention centers, where people can use drugs under medical supervision.

Gov. Maura Healey has included $600 million in her fiscal 2024 budget proposal for a variety of substance abuse efforts, including more inpatient and outpatient treatment programs. Meanwhile, DPH has sought to distribute more overdose-reversal kits. The department has also handed out about 275,000 fentanyl test strips since August.

"DPH has increased its investment in naloxone by more than 140 percent in recent years, from $2.9 million in 2018 to $7 million in 2022," the department said in a news release. "Through these investments, DPH launched the Community Naloxone Purchasing Program in May 2022 to increase distribution of free naloxone through organizations to community members across Massachusetts."

Following this week's data release, the Framingham-based Association for Behavioral Healthcare called for even more funding for treatment programs, in part to boost staffing in an industry where workers are strained.

"[W]e cannot expand, enhance or even maintain existing services without the corresponding workforce to support them, and our community-based substance use treatment providers cite enormous strains on recruiting and retaining staff," ABH CEO Lydia Conley said this week. "There is an urgent need to address the overdose crisis by improving the ability of people with a substance use disorder to access and remain in treatment services."

Fentanyl remains the biggest factor in overdose deaths, with the synthetic drug present in about 93 percent of overdoses, according to state data. DPH only began tracking the presence of xylazine — an animal sedative — midway through 2022, and found the drug present in about 5 percent of overdose deaths. Xylazine can slow a person's heart rate, making it an extremely dangerous alongside opioids.

On a geographic level, some parts of the state saw overdose death decreases in 2022. But those losses were made up by gains in some of the most populated counties, including Worcester, Suffolk and Middlesex. Overdoses increased the most in 2022 in Lawrence, Leominster, Lynn, Springfield, Waltham, Weymouth and Worcester.

2022 overdoses by county with increase/decrease vs. 2021:

• Barnstable — 86, 7.5%
• Berkshire — 48, -22.6%
• Bristol — 277, -5.5%
• Dukes — 6, 20%
• Essex — 276 -5.2%
• Franklin — 27, -25%
• Hampden — 227, 6.6%
• Hampshire — 37, -15.9%
• Middlesex — 383, 6.4%
• Nantucket — 2, -50%
• Norfolk — 160, -1.8%
• Plymouth — 190, 13.8%
• Suffolk — 305, 1.7%
• Worcester — 331, 17.8%

Over the decade ending in 2022, 20,351 residents died due to an overdose, according to state data. During that time, Middlesex County has seen the most deaths at 3,436.

If you or someone you know is struggling with opioid use disorder, visit findtreatment.gov or call 1-800-622-HELP (4357) for help finding a treatment center nearby.