More Overdose Deaths are Likely Coming Nationwide. What About Washington State?

A recent article in the journal JAMA Network Open estimates that overdose deaths are going to continue to rise over the next six years nationwide and reach nearly 82,000 people a year by 2025.

The study also estimates that by then one and a half million people will be on illicit opioids, such as heroin, nationwide.

Dr. Caleb Banta-Green, epidemiologist and principal research scientist at the UW Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute, expects overdose deaths to “stay about level, unless fentanyl becomes way more widespread, which could increase deaths, or we make treatment medications literally easier to get than illicit opioids,” in an interview with KUOW. Read more…