LANSING, Mich.  (Michigan News Source) – The number of overdose deaths in Michigan dropped by 5.7% in 2023, something the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is attributing to the state making Naloxone, a drug that can reverse overdoses, more available at no cost to the public.

Michigan’s 2023 statistics.

Michigan had 2,826 deaths in 2023, down from 2,998 the previous year. The state has had 698 overdoses through April 2024. The state had 3,096 overdose deaths in 2021 and 2,738 in 2020.

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Besides providing opioid reversal medication at no charge, the state has also increased access to fentanyl and xylazine testing strips to people who use drugs so they can detect the dangerous substances and reduce their risk of accidental overdose, according to a press release.

The Michigan Opioids Task Force.

But the state is still far above the number of overdose deaths it had in 2017 when there were 2,053.

In 2019, Whitmer created a Michigan Opioids Task Force whose job was to “tackle the opioid epidemic.”

U.S. Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee has blamed President Joe Biden’s border policies for the rise of drugs being smuggled in the U.S. from Mexico. Biden took office in January 2020.

As of July 31, the U.S. Department of Justice stated that in 2024 the Drug Enforcement Administration has seized 30 million fentanyl pills and more than 4,100 pounds of fentanyl powder which it said represented 208 million deadly doses.