Maryland overdose deaths fell 30% in 2024, preliminary national data shows
Two tranquilizers, xylazine and medetomidine, increasingly appear alongside opioids like fentanyl in Maryland drug samples. (Ian Round/Capital News Service)
Maryland recorded 746 fewer overdose deaths in 2024 than in 2023, a 29.2% drop that mirrored a sharp decline nationally, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The decline – from 2,493 in 2023 to 1,747 in 2024 in Maryland – continues a promising trend that indicates that overdose prevention efforts have been effective, federal health officials said. The trend began in 2023, when deaths nationally fell 10% from the year before, and in Maryland they fell 6.16%.
Maryland's slightly outpaced the national decline last year, when overdose deaths fell an estimated 25.6% from 2023, according to the CDC's annual Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts released Wednesday.
While the data suggests a significant improvement, federal health officials say there more work to be done to prevent overdose deaths nationwide – including in Maryland.
'Despite these overall improvements, overdose remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44, underscoring the need for ongoing efforts to maintain this progress,' the CDC said in a written statement.
Last year, there were more than 79,500 people who died from overdoses across the United States, according to the new estimates, down from the 106,881 people who died from overdose in 2023.
CDC says Maryland, and most of the nation, has had fewer overdose deaths in 2024
'Since late 2023, overdose deaths have steadily declined each month — a strong sign that public health interventions are making a difference and having a meaningful impact,' the CDC said.
It was a shift from 2018 through 2023, when the United States struggled with an increasing number of deaths due to overdoses, partially fueled by the rise in opioid use and increased prevalence of stronger substances such as fentanyl. Other factors included increased drug use during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decrease that began in 2023 is believed to be the result of greater overdose prevention efforts, such as increased education and distribution of the opioid overdose-reversal drug, naloxone.
The substance leading to the most overdose deaths still appears to be opioids, in both the U.S. and in Maryland.
Maryland's Overdose Data Dashboard says that through the first three months of this year, from January through March, there were 283 deaths due to overdose. Of those cases, opioids were involved in 233 deaths, with 209 deaths related specifically to fentanyl.
There were also more than 1,393 emergency room visits related to opioid overdose from January through March, according to the dashboard.
While Maryland's decrease was steep, and sharper than the national average, it more or less fell in the middle of the pack when compared to other states.
Neighboring West Virginia was estimated to have the steepest decline in overdose deaths among states, falling 42.4%, from 1,389 deaths in 2023 to 800 in 2024.
Washington, D.C., also showed a greater drop in its overdose death rate than Maryland. District overdose deaths fell from 635 in 2023 to 396 last year, a 37.6% decline.
Just two states are estimated to have had increases in overdoses last year. South Dakota had an increase of 4.8% in overdose deaths, from 84 deaths in 2023 to 88 deaths in 2024, while Nevada saw 4.6% more deaths due to overdose, rising from 1,400 in 2023 to 1,465 in 2024.
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