Amid the continuing opioid crisis, Connecticut achieved a landmark in 2024 in its battle against addiction and overdoses. Governor Ned Lamont announced in June that the state saw a 26% decline in overdose deaths in 2024 compared to 2023.
Notably, 2024 was also the first year since 2016 that Connecticut had fewer than 1,000 total overdoses, with the year’s tally of 990 well below 2023’s total of 1,328 deaths and the state’s peak of 1,524 deaths tracked in 2021.
While the figures are well below previous years, and represent a decline of more than one-third over the course of just three years, the need for anti-overdose efforts remains. Every life lost to an overdose is a friend or family member and their losses impact their communities and loved ones.
State leaders aware of that reality, including the governor, Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani and Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services Commissioner Nancy Navaretta described state efforts to respond to opioid use through coordinated efforts to offer access to treatment and recovery for struggling individuals, reach out to communities to warn them of the dangers of opioid use and engaging with communities to increase public awareness of ways to fight overdoses.
This includes the distribution of nearly 60,000 doses of naloxone, a medication that reverses overdoses, statewide in 2024 alone; expanded use of harm reduction centers, which offer access to health care, social services and treatment for those struggling with substance use disorder; and improved outreach services through community partnerships in different parts of the state.
Other efforts to reduce overdose deaths include naloxone distribution and efforts to reduce the stigma of substance use disorder to make users more likely to access care. The state has also sought to maximize use of prescription monitoring programs for doctors to log what they provide to patients.
The state noted 76% of overdose deaths in Connecticut involved fentanyl and in 2023, more than half of overdose deaths were related to cocaine use, significant trends that have changed some aspects of response. With lower amounts of fentanyl required than other opioids to trigger an overdose and threaten lives, its presence represents a need to reinforce prevention and find new inroads toward sustaining these positive developments.
A recent rash of overdoses in New Haven and Hartford counties has underscored the importance of responding to the crisis. The Journal Inquirer reported from May 15 to June 6 that fentanyl and two other drugs including an animal sedative and a numbing agent for dentistry work led to 61 suspected overdoses and 27 fatalities.
Some advocates are likely stung by the removal of another means of overdose prevention from recent legislation. While a provision of Senate Bill 7 allowing the state to pursue a pilot program for overdose prevention centers, where individuals would be monitored during use and referred to rehabilitation and aid, passed the Senate in late May, it was later stripped from the bill under threat of veto or blockage of the larger bill. Such centers have saved their local communities significant sums of money while they save lives and prevent overdoses; amid legislators wanting to approach more prevention strategies, they will not move forward this year.
