The tally is a 5 percent drop from the 244 deaths that Vermont recorded in 2022. And though it may tick up once the state reviews another 15 pending death certificates, it represents a plateau after two years of staggering increases.
But it is an alarming figure nonetheless, reflecting just how far Vermont still has to go in its effort to limit the damage from a dangerous and unpredictable drug supply.
In a statement, Mark Levine, Vermont’s health commissioner, said the “bending of the curve” shows that harm-reduction efforts are working.
“While the decrease is not statistically large, it is significant where it matters most — fewer families have lost a loved one to opioids,” he said. “The progress we have made is encouraging. It means we are on the right track, but we are far from out of the woods.”
A health department analysis found that, consistent with previous years, Vermont’s southern counties continue to be hard hit, with Rutland, Windsor and Bennington all reporting at least 53 deaths per 100,000 people, well above the state average of 35. In Chittenden County, meanwhile, more than 50 people died from overdoses for the third straight year.
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that gets mixed into all sorts of drugs, continues to be implicated in almost all of the deaths. Cocaine, meanwhile, was flagged in about 60 percent, a sharp increase from the previous year.
The data track the continued rise of xylazine, an animal tranquilizer that can knock people out for hours and causes lesions that can lead to amputations and even death. The drug, which appeared in the systems of just five fatal overdose victims in 2020, was flagged in 69 deaths in 2022 and another 74 deaths last year.
That tracks with the findings of a recent study at the University of Vermont Medical Center, where researchers say they’ve identified an overlap between drug users and a significant increase in certain serious blood infections documented in 2022 and 2023.
The release of the annual overdose data comes in the same week that state lawmakers signed off on a bill that would authorize the first center for people to safely use drugs in Vermont.
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This article appears in May 1-7, 2024.
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