

What the Numbers Tell Us — and What They Don't
Massachusetts saw a more than 36% decrease in opioid-related overdose deaths in 2024, the lowest total since 2013, and a decline felt across all races and ethnicities.
In Boston alone, opioid deaths dropped 38% compared to 2023. In Franklin County and the North Quabbin region, the drop was 62.5%.
Those numbers are the result of years of hard work by clinicians, communities, harm reduction advocates, and the individuals who fought for their own lives. That’s real change, real lives saved.
And yet fentanyl was present in nearly 92% of opioid-related overdose deaths in that same period. Xylazine, a veterinary sedative increasingly cut into the drug supply, was found in 34% of samples tested. The progress is real — and the work is not finished.

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