Mental Health Update
The Declining Number of Overdose Deaths
Through our own personal journey, we have met so many people with promise, passion and intelligence that have lost their lives to overdose deaths. It is heart wrenching.
These numbers give us some comfort. It is a credit to Governor Hochul, the Legislature, Commissioner Cunningham and the team at OASAS, advocates, the provider community and the thousands of hard-working direct care staff, CASACS, clinical teams and all the people every day who are the unsung heroes helping to lead to this decline.
That said, we know that even one death is one too many. We have to continue to fight for more services, harm reduction and prevention programs, more housing, medication access and continued widespread naloxone availability.
– Glenn
Overdose Deaths Continue Decline
with New York Among Leaders
Overdose deaths in New York have declined significantly in recent years — and the expansion of harm reduction initiatives are likely contributing to that drop, a new report shows.
Overdoses in New York fell by 32% between 2023 and 2024, from 6,330 to 4,449. That amounts to 1,881 fewer overdoses — the third largest numerical decline in the country, behind California and Florida, according to a new analysis of state overdose numbers released Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund, a health policy research organization.
New York experienced a significant downturn in overdose deaths which happened to be aligned with other states. Eleven other states saw overdose deaths decrease by 30% or more between 2023 and 2024, which researchers say likely results from the expansion of public health policies to mitigate the addiction crisis.
Overdoses in New York have continued to fall, with preliminary data from 2025 showing that overdoses dropped 22%.
Health officials expanded harm-reduction initiatives and other public health policies amid a worsening overdose crisis that led deaths to peak after the Covid-19 pandemic. Nationally, overdoses totaled 107,941 in 2022, reaching an all-time high. Deaths declined in 2023 for the first time since before the pandemic and have continued to trend downward, but nearly 80,000 people still died from an overdose in 2024.
It’s difficult to pinpoint one single reason why overdose deaths have declined, both in New York and nationally, said Evan Gumas, senior research associate at the Commonwealth Fund and author of the report. Changes in the drug supply — including the declining potency of fentanyl — shifting drug-use practices and harm reduction initiatives, such as the distribution of the overdose-reversing medication naloxone, may all be contributing to fewer deaths, he said.
A series of initiatives in New York are likely assisting with the decline, the report said. New York, for example, became the first state to establish an online portal for residents to order free naloxone kits in 2023, part of an effort to create a larger saturation of the medication statewide. The state has distributed 574,000 naloxone kits through that portal to date, the governor’s office said in a news release earlier this week.
New York has also increased access to methadone, a medication to treat opioid use disorder. Forty-three counties statewide had one or more methadone clinics in 2026, up from 29 counties five years earlier, the report said. Additionally, the state offers substance-use disorder services in all 58 jails and 41 state prisons, reaching a high-risk population. Those services reached nearly 20,000 people between 2022 and 2025, the report said.
Though overdose deaths have declined both in New York and nationally, Gumas said that the number of deaths is still too high. Recent federal policy changes that stand to reduce access to insurance coverage, including upcoming changes to Medicaid eligibility, could reverse progress, he added.
“We still lost nearly 80,000 Americans in 2024,” Gumas said. “We really need to keep our foot on the gas with everything that has been working over the past few years, and continue making sure we can reduce the numbers as much as possible.”
https://www.crainsnewyork.com/health-care/cny-why-overdoses-are-declining-20260903/
