Oregon Health Authority remains focused on increased efforts to reduce substance use—and is looking at new opportunities to expand prevention, harm-reduction, treatment and recovery services—as a state data dashboard shows an increase in overdoses during 2023.
Overdose fatalities continued to rise in 2023, with more than half of the unintentional overdose deaths involving an opioid or a stimulant, according to a new and updated data dashboard. State health officials are still gathering data for 2024.
OHA launched the update of its Oregon Overdose Prevention Dashboard to provide more timely data, highlight emerging trends, and give users the ability to download the data. The dashboard is an interactive tool for tracking state, county and demographic trends related to fatal and non-fatal overdoses.
The updated dashboard shows the extent to which polysubstance use is contributing to fatal overdoses and disparities in overdose deaths:
- Overdose fatalities continued to rise, from 1,383 deaths in 2022 to 1,833 in 2023.
- 53% of unintentional overdose deaths in 2023 involved both an opioid and a stimulant.
- Fatal overdose rates remain high in non-Hispanic, Black and American Indian/Alaska Native communities.
Oregon is working aggressively to stem the rise in overdoses with a multi-faceted plan intended to reduce substance use and get life-saving treatment to people faster and more efficiently. This includes:
- Expanding naloxone distribution and other harm reduction efforts to better align with community needs, including through our Save Lives Oregon project.
- Increasing access to medically assisted treatments for substance use.
- Scaling up peer support and intervention programs across the state.
- Stabilizing and supporting the substance use treatment workforce.
- Continuing education and prevention campaigns.
- The Legislature last year approved more funding for education for school-aged youth on the risks of substance use.
- More funding directed toward supplying schools with naloxone. Every middle and high school in the state is eligible to receive up to three opioid response kits, each with eight doses of naloxone.
In addition, since July 2021, the State of Oregon has reached agreement on national lawsuits against several companies—opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies—for their roles in the opioid crisis. Through these agreements, nearly $600 million will be awarded to Oregon over 18 years. These funds will support substance use and overdose prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery strategies.
Finally, Gov. Tina Kotek’s 2025-2027 budget proposes $90 million for capacity-building for adult mental health services, substance use disorder residential treatment, and withdrawal management; $40 million for supporting deflection coordinators, peers and counselors who give individuals struggling with addiction the opportunity to avoid legal consequences and to seek treatment instead; and $25 million for targeted residential and community-based behavioral health and substance use disorder capacity, expansion of mental health services, prevention services for school-based health centers, and funding to expand youth suicide prevention work.
“Oregon’s overdose crisis has affected every community across the state, and the highly sensitive and traumatic nature of these events has caused harm, trauma and loss that impact the well-being of everyone,” said Liz McCarthy, overdose epidemiologist in OHA’s Injury and Violence Prevention Program (IVPP). “The impact fatal and non-fatal drug overdoses have on our communities shows how important this data can be, especially for data-driven decisions.”
Developed by the OHA IVPP, the updated dashboard gives public health officials, local agencies, and community organizations improved access to critical data. These resources aim to better inform efforts to reduce drug-related overdose.
The final 2023 death certificate data was only recently released. It typically takes nearly a year (and in this case 11 months) for all of the pending information, such as toxicology reports, to be gathered and analyzed. OHA will release 2024 data as soon as it is available.
“Our team decided to update our Overdose Prevention dashboard based on feedback we received from the community and people who use the data,” McCarthy said. “The update allows users to explore the latest trends in overdose deaths, hospital visits and the substances involved, as well as download the data for more in-depth analysis.”
The dashboard covers a range of drug categories including fentanyl, heroin, opioids and stimulants, with data on overdose fatalities, emergency department discharges and hospital discharges.
A new page focuses on Oregon’s State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS) data. The new page offers additional information on unintentional overdose deaths in Oregon. One highlight is the “Drug of Interest” section for information on emerging substances, such as xylazine.
Source: Oregon Health Authority