-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Late last month, news outlets reported that drug overdose deaths across the country were "falling fast," in a “promising” trend that is “saving thousands of lives — But many people working on the ground in harm reduction spaces say the national trend does not align with what they are seeing as they continue to watch people who use drugs in their community die at alarming rates. In Ashland County, Wisconsin, for example, there were more overdose fatalities in the first half of 2024 than there were in all of 2023, and the majority of people who died were American Indian Alaska Natives, said Philomena Kebec, economic development coordinator for the Bad River Tribe. Related Overdoses are soaring, but medications can reduce death by 50 percent.
So why aren't we using them? “I think we need to celebrate the reduction in overall fatality but it has to be couched within this qualification that some racial groups are not experiencing a decrease in overdoses,” Kebec told Salon in a phone interview. “In fact, we've been seeing an increase in overdose fatality rates, and we're also really hobbled by the data lag in getting this information.” "There has not been a decrease of this magnitude since I started looking at these data from the mid-1990s.
" Provisional data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that overdose deaths declined nationally by about 10% between April 2023 and April 2024. Another anal.