Toll in MA Lives and Dollars Remains Terrible Even as Opioid Deaths Drop

Although fewer Massachusetts residents are dying of opioid overdoses, the number of such deaths still exceeds 2,000 a year.

According to preliminary data released this week by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2,015 persons died of opioid overdoses in 2019, which represented a 4% decrease since the historic peak of 2,102 overdose deaths in 2016.

The downward trend continued during the first quarter of this calendar year.

There were 28 fewer opioid overdose deaths in January, February and March than in the same period of 2019: 467 fatalities versus 495.

Amidst this welcome development there can be no joy.  The size of the continuing problem is just so huge...and hugely depressing.

Two thousand and fifteen persons succumbing to opioid abuse works out to more than 5 deaths in every day of 2019 in Massachusetts.

The deadly toll of the never-ending opioid epidemic  upon Massachusetts families, as well as the suffering of family members and dear friends of those with opioid use disorder, are incalculable.

The fiscal impacts of the epidemic are measured, with results that overwhelm cognitive abilities and shake the soul.

A November, 2018, report from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, "The Massachusetts Opioid Epidemic -- An Issue of Substance," pegged the financial burdens of the opioid crisis on the state, in terms of  "lost productivity, increased health costs, and increased expenses for public safety and criminal justice," in the billions of dollars annually.

Here are two of the particulars from that report:

• "The cost of lost productivity from those who are unable to work due to opioids, those who have died from overdoses, and those whose productivity is compromised by having to manage their own opioid addiction while working, reached approximately $9.7 billion in 2017."

• "Health care costs related to the opioid crisis, including excess costs to businesses, MassHealth (Medicaid) and other state programs, and (to) health care providers, reached $4.5 billion in 2017." 

Think how much good could be accomplished with those billions, how much better life in Massachusetts could be, if there were no illegal opioids, and if we humans were not so vulnerable to addiction.