A fentanyl test kit is used during an arrest for drug possession in downtown Portland, Sept. 10, 2024.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
New data from the Oregon Health Authority show 1,833 people died from overdose deaths in 2023, an increase of 450 people from the previous year.
The uptick was fueled by a combination of opioids, such as fentanyl, as well as stimulants, like methamphetamine.
“But a lot of it is the substances that are in the illicit market are very dangerous,” said Liz McCarthy, overdose epidemiologist with the OHA.
Communities of color have been hit especially hard, according to the latest state data.
“They have consistently had a higher rate of overdose, over the last several years,” McCarthy said. “Sadly, I wish I could say there was a substantial decrease, but we just didn’t see it in 2023.”
Last year, 53% of overdose deaths involved the combined use of a stimulant and an opioid, according to the state health agency.
Over the past decade, Oregon has seen its number of drug overdoses gradually increase. Between 2016 and 2019, the number of overdose deaths increased 23%.
By 2020, 824 people died of an overdose. Since then, the trend has accelerated with 1,189 people dying in 2021, and 1,383 people in 2022.
A chart from the Oregon Health Authority showing the rate of overdose deaths between 2010-2023. Unlike many states across the country, Oregon has seen an increase in overdose deaths in the past year.
Courtesy of the Oregon Health Authority
Nationally, overdoses have dropped.
New data released this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show overdose deaths dropped nearly 17% during the past year.
But Oregon and other Western states, including Washington, have continued to see overdose deaths grow. The presence of illicit fentanyl dramatically increased in Oregon’s drug supply years after devastating communities along the East Coast and throughout the Midwest.
This year, Oregon lawmakers passed a new law that recriminalized drug possession, which went into effect Sept. 1. The state’s previous experiment with drug decriminalization was blamed for the state’s spike in overdoses.
But Brandon Del Pozo, a professor at Brown University, said his research refutes that claim.
Speaking at a conference about Oregon’s drug policies in Salem in January, Del Pozo said Oregon was “not the only state in America to have at some terrible point in your history, a huge jump in overdose deaths.”
“When you look at the fentanyl model in those states' drug supply, you see the same thing: fentanyl is taking off, overdose deaths are taking off,” he said.
State health experts say they expect the number of overdose deaths to drop, mirroring national trends.
McCarthy said the provisional data for 2024 does show a “slight decrease” in overdose deaths compared to last year.
“There’s probably many, many things that are impacting this downward trend, including naloxone saturation across the state, making sure everyone has access to this life saving drug,” she said.
Other factors, McCarthy said, could be the prevalence of harm reduction programs, and that the drug supply is now shifting away from illicit fentanyl.
