Overdose-related deaths in Palm Beach County have fallen

A nearly 46% drop in overdose deaths in 2024, from 440 in 2023 to a projected maximum of 239 in 2024, according to Project Opioid

Kelly Nichols, now 57, says she pictured how she’d die one day: She’d succeed a long line of people who abused drugs, so turning to drugs seemed a certain, bleak future.

“It was only inevitable,” Nichols said. “I woke up to it. I’d go to school with pot in my hair. So I knew that’s how I was going to die.”

And that may have been her fate had she not received help from recovery resources in Palm Beach County, where overdose-related deaths dropped by about 46% from 440 in 2023 to a projected maximum of 239 in 2024, according to Project Opioid.

What’s working

The plunge in overdose deaths is not the result of lessened substance abuse — in fact, the exact opposite is true, officials say. Andrae Bailey, Project Opioid’s founder and CEO, said drug use and substance abuse is on the rise.

“What we’re seeing is an increase now nationwide and all over the state of Florida in drugs like cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and new drugs like xylazine,” Bailey said.

Bailey and Dennis Lemma, the chair of the state task force on opioid abuse, attribute the overdose death decrease, despite the rise in substance abuse, to several factors, including “opioid antagonists,” as Lemma called them, and creating new legislation to continue holding drug dealers accountable.

Opioid antagonists and new legislation

Opioid antagonists, such as naloxone — an opioid-overdose antidote, which is commonly referred to by the brand name Narcan — reverse the effects of opioids. Naloxone has been deployed among sheriff’s offices across the state and no longer requires a prescription, so any citizen can acquire it now, too.

“It’s very much about helping fellow citizens out, and it has very little effect on helping yourself. There hasn’t been one case in this country where a person has revived themselves from an overdose of poison. It’s about helping others out,” Lemma said.

While naloxone use is a more reactive approach, the threat of criminal charges for drug dealers is thought to also have helped curb the number of overdoses.

What else should be implemented

Despite the success in slashing the overdose death number nearly in half, officials on Tuesday emphasized the long road still ahead both in the county and beyond.

Keith Oswald, the chief of equity and wellness for the county’s school district, said ensuring a high quality of drug education materials administered to students between sixth and 12th grade is crucial, but that can be challenging as the standards have changed a lot.

The Palm Beach County School District also is currently testing out vape detectors in some of the school bathrooms to curb the “vaping epidemic” that Oswald said has struck not just the county but the entire nation.

“That is really getting the kids addicted at an early age and the way they’re marketing to the kids, the flavors, odorless, that they can hide it in plain sight they can smoke in class and you won’t know it’s happening, and it’s getting more and more challenging,” Oswald said.

Darcy Davis, the CEO of the county’s Health Care District, an independent taxing district that provides medical services, said continuing to focus on and expand prevention care also will be crucial to keeping overdose death rates low.

“We have to get upstream. We’ve got to prevent the crisis. We can’t keep focused on the fact that we’re in this constant state of panic,” she said during the symposium. “We need to get ‘access for people when they’re not in that moment of jeopardy. … We have to kind of turn our heads a little bit from that reactive approach and get upstream and talk about how do we prevent this in the future.”

Conclusion

Overdose-related deaths in Palm Beach County have fallen by nearly 46% from 440 in 2023 to a projected maximum of 239 in 2024, according to Project Opioid. This decline is a testament to the efforts of recovery resources, opioid antagonists, and new legislation to hold drug dealers accountable. However, officials emphasized that the long road ahead still lies ahead, and it is crucial to continue focusing on prevention care, expanding access to drug education, and addressing the growing epidemic of vaping.

FAQs

* What is the current number of overdose deaths in Palm Beach County?
A: A projected maximum of 239 in 2024, a 46% drop from 440 in 2023.
* What is the cause of the decline in overdose deaths?
A: Opioid antagonists, such as naloxone, and new legislation to hold drug dealers accountable.
* What is being done to address the growing epidemic of vaping?
A: The Palm Beach County School District is testing out vape detectors in some school bathrooms, and officials are working to prevent early addiction and abuse among children.