A steep drop in Michigan overdose deaths, thanks in part to Narcan
- Drug overdose deaths fell by 1,000, or about 34%, in 2024, according to provisional state data.
- That’s an unprecedented drop, and a steeper decrease than the national average
- State leaders, as well as providers, credit opioid settlement dollars that have expanded efforts in prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery
About 1,000 fewer Michiganders died last year of overdoses compared to 2023 — an unprecedented decline in a state where, until recently, opioids claimed someone every four hours.
It’s the third consecutive year of declines. There were 1,927 deaths last year compared to 2,931 in 2023, according to provisional data by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
The drop coincides with a national decline in drug deaths, as reported recently by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Still, the state decline of 34% is much steeper than the national decline of 27%, and it comes after two years of only moderate improvement in Michigan.
If the final case counts stand once they’re all reviewed, it will be the first time the state will have recorded fewer than 2,000 deaths since 2015.
“This is exceptional news,” said Dr. Kanzoni Asabigi, vice president of the Detroit Recovery Project, a Detroit-based nonprofit that provides outpatient support services for substance use and mental health disorders.
“It’s huge,” agreed Nancy King, a long-time harm-reduction advocate. Her daughter died of an overdose, and King founded the COPE Network, a Kalamazoo-based harm reduction organization.
The drop is the result of “sustained, strategic investment in prevention, treatment, recovery, and harm-reduction efforts” supported, in part, by the state’s share of funds from national opioid settlements, according to a statement released by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
Several providers agreed, noting that the drop in deaths occurs alongside an increase in free naloxone, an emergency medication used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, and other resources.
Related:
Making Narcan more accessible
For its part, Harm Reduction Michigan has added 122 naloxone distribution sites since October, bringing the current total to 294 sites, said executive director Pam Lynch. The Traverse City-based group does work throughout Michigan, and it received a $280,000 state grant in the fall to pay part-time workers to distribute naloxone, also sold under the brand name, Narcan.
The newspaper-box style dispensers are located throughout Michigan's rural and urban areas, allowing people with substance use disorder, or their loved ones — parents, siblings, spouses, friends and even children of parents who use opioids — to have kits on hand in crisis, Lynch said.
The Harm Reduction Michigan workers and volunteers who fill the boxes are often in recovery themselves, have come close to losing someone or have lost someone, so they are especially passionate about keeping distribution sites stocked with naloxone kits, she said.
The grant provides “people who get paid 20 hours, but who put in maybe 30 hours because if they don’t, people die,” Lynch said.
Michigan state and local governments have used some of their opioid settlement funds to distribute more than 1.3 million naloxone kits, with nearly 34,000 reported uses to reverse overdoses and save lives.
The funds have paid for other crucial efforts, said Lynch and Detroit’s Asabigi.
“The easy access to Narcan — to free Narcan — has been really helpful,” Asabigi said, “But there is no single answer.”
The expansion of medication assisted treatment in jails, also funded, in part, by settlement dollars, has provided treatment to inmates and a smoother transition to further treatment when they are released, he said.
Meanwhile, peer-recovery coaches have been able to access emergency rooms to offer help to users, and the expanded availability of drug test strips has helped detect the presence of fentanyl and other particularly dangerous additives in the drug supply, he said.
“All these things — major and minor — add up,” he said.
But providers also said they were concerned about future success, as the future of staffing and funds from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, commonly known as SAMHSA, are cast into uncertainty, as well as Medicaid dollars, which help pay for services.
“We have this huge drop (in deaths,) and that’s great,” said King, at the COPE Network in Kalamazoo.
But she noted that a drop in deaths doesn’t necessarily equate to a drop in drug use. Naloxone helps reduce deaths only; supporting the entire fight against drugs — from prevention to recovery — takes additional spending.
“The goal is to keep getting better, and not go in the other direction,” she said.
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