46% drop in opioid overdose deaths in Palm Beach County in 2024, medical examiner reports

Yahoo

03-03-2025

BOCA RATON — Describing it as one of the most significant year-to-year drops Florida has seen, state and local officials announced a 46% drop in opioid overdose deaths in Palm Beach County last year compared to in 2023.
The county reported 224 confirmed opioid deaths in 2024, compared to 414 in 2023, according to statistics from the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office. The office has not released a final total for 2024, as 13 cases from November and December are still under review.
But officials hosting a forum on the opioid epidemic Tuesday at Florida Atlantic University said the reported decline shows signs of progress.
"This is a historic drop in deaths," said Andrae Bailey, founder and CEO of the Orlando-based organization, Project Opioid, which hosted the forum. "It means that what the community is doing here is working. I think what's clear is the distribution of naloxone, along with community partners offering treatment for people who are struggling, it's working."
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Former Palm Beach County commissioner Melissa McKinlay and former State Attorney Dave Aronberg were among those who spoke during the forum, discussing the county's efforts to stem the opioid crisis.
Aronberg, who ended his tenure as state attorney in January after serving three terms, reflected on his time in the office, including the formation of the county's Sober Homes Task Force nearly a decade ago to combat unscrupulous treatment facilities.
"We were able to make the progress we have accomplished by shutting the pill mills, passing state laws," he said. "By shutting down the drug treatment centers that were rogue. By shutting down the sober homes that were unscrupulous."
Aronberg said the number of emergency calls to Palm Beach County Fire Rescue for suspected overdoses has significantly declined since the task force was formed in 2016.
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When asked what solutions he would propose to fight the opioid crisis growing forward, Aronberg stressed the need for reforms at the federal level, in particular changes to the reimbursement model for treatment providers under the Affordable Care Act.
"I would change the Affordable Care Act from an old school fee-per-service reimbursement model, where the more services you provide, the more money you get paid, and I would change it to what have now for everything else within our health care system that Medicare pays for," he said.
"We have outcome-based reimbursement so the better hospitals with better results get paid more. … We've got to create some sort of mechanism to reward the good providers and punish the bad ones."
McKinlay said the decline in opioid deaths is encouraging, but stressed that the county and state continue to face challenges as newer illicit drugs become available.
She noted a significant jump in overdose deaths in the county nearly a decade ago. According to federal Centers for Disease Control & Prevention statistics dating to 2013, drug overdose deaths in Palm Beach County rose from 335 cases in 2015 to a peak of 636 cases in 2017.
"I'm not going to forget that graph that at one point showed that number in the low 300s, and what it did two years later, almost 650 people who lost their lives," McKinlay said.
"The drug dealers will find a new drug. That drug will be resistant to Narcan. We need to make sure that we have resources in place so we never see that 600-plus number again. "
Bailey said that while the number of overdose deaths has declined, drug overdoses in general have increased, a trend seen statewide.
"People are still struggling with drugs and alcohol at a historic rate," he said. "The mental health crisis is driving that. On one hand, we have to applaud the reduction in deaths. On the other hand, we have to realize that people are still struggling with drugs more than ever."
Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at [e-mail] and follow him on Twitter at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Opioid overdose deaths down sharply in Palm Beach County during 2024