MA Saw A Drop In Overdose Deaths In 2023. What About Natick?

NATICK, MA — Massachusetts saw the biggest year-over-year decline in opioid deaths in two decades last year, and Natick numbers matched that trend.

Massachusetts opioid overdose deaths increased every year between 2019 and 2022, reaching an all-time high of 2,357 in 2022. An estimated 2,125 died in 2023, and deaths over the first three months of 2024 were trending lower than in previous years, the state Department of Public Health said Wednesday.

In Natick, only one person died from an opioid overdose in 2023, a decline from two in 2022.

Natick has had limited overdose deaths since 2016, when the highest total in that period was seven in 2017. Only one other year, 2018, has recorded just one overdose death.

State officials attributed the reduction to increased investments in treatment programs and housing, the distribution of nearly 200,000 naloxone overdose kits and increasing access to medications to treat opioid-use disorder. The state has focused its efforts especially on people living in rural areas and in communities of color.