More than 1,000 people (1,080) in the St. Louis metro region died by overdosing opioids, primarily fentanyl, in 2018, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse- St. Louis Area (NCADA-STL).
NCADA-STL – a community health organization that works to prevent and reduce the harms associated with alcohol and other drugs through education, intervention, and advocacy – said this was a new peak level and represents a 29.9 percent increase in opioid-involved deaths in the region between 2017 and 2018.
The organization also reported that methamphetamine was involved in 267 deaths and cocaine was involved in 163 deaths in the region in 2018.
“The opioid crisis continues to escalate in our region, with an average of about 3 people dying per day,” said Nichole Dawsey, executive director of NCADA. “Fentanyl is involved in the overwhelming majority of these deaths.”
Between 2013 and 2018 the eastern region of Missouri saw a 187 percent increase in opioid-involved deaths, a 186 percent increase in cocaine-involved deaths, and a 685 percent increase in deaths involving methamphetamine, according to NCADA-STL.
Many deaths reported involve multiple substances and may be counted more than once, i.e. a death involving fentanyl and methamphetamine would be counted as a death related to opioids and a death related to methamphetamine
“The opioid crisis is the more lethal aspect of what we are truly experiencing, which is an addiction crisis,” said NCADA Deputy Executive Director Jenny Armbruster.
“In order to address addiction in a comprehensive manner, we need to look at upstream interventions including school-based and community-based prevention and addressing social determinants of health. This upstream focus must be paired with increased access to mental health services and treatment for substance use disorder.”