State confirms 2023 fatal drug overdoses in Alaska shot up to all-time high

New mortality data from the state of Alaska confirmed preliminary findings that there was a major increase in the number of fatal drug overdoses last year.

There were 357 deaths attributed to drug overdoses in 2023, an increase of nearly 45% over the prior year, and by far the largest number in a single year. In 2022, which was another near-record year, state officials tallied 247 deaths from overdoses.

The findings were part of the 2023 Drug Overdose Mortality Report from the state Department of Health, reviewed and compiled by the Alaska Health Analytics and Vital Records Section and Office of Substance Misuse and Addiction Prevention, and were published Tuesday. Earlier this year, data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed Alaska was an outlier among the vast majority of U.S. states that saw declines in drug deaths.

“Due to this increase, Alaska recorded its highest ever drug overdose death rate in 2023. This runs counter to the national trend where overdose death rates decreased in 2023, for the first time since 2018,” according to the state report’s authors.

The main driver of the trend is opioids, specifically the potent synthetic painkiller fentanyl, which has come to dominate the supply of drugs sold on the street. Seventy four percent of overdose deaths involved fentanyl, compared to just 16 total deaths attributed to heroin, which until just a few years ago was the primary opioid causing fatal overdoses in Alaska and most other Western states.

The other culprit is polysubstance abuse: multiple drugs used regularly in combination. According to the most recent data, 54% deaths involved methamphetamine used alongside another drug, typically narcotics like fentanyl. The availability and potency of both has surged across the country in recent years as production has shifted to industrial labs run by transnational criminal networks abroad.

“Multidrug use can be a significant driver of overdose mortality due to the physiological effects on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems when mixing different substances. Of all overdose deaths that occurred between 2019-2023, 59% involved two or more narcotic, sedative, or psychotropic drugs,” the report notes.

The Anchorage area saw, by far, the highest rate of overdose deaths of any region in the state, with nearly 80 deaths per 100,000 people. The second-highest rate was in Southeast Alaska, at 40.1.

Men die from overdoses at a higher rate than women, accounting for 63% of fatal overdoses.

Similarly, Alaska Natives and American Indians constituted 33% of drug overdose deaths last year, though they make up less than 20% of the state’s overall population. According to the data, 170 white Alaskans died, just under half the total reported fatalities.

Nationwide, fatal overdoses declined by more than 10% during a 12-month period from April 2023 to April 2024, according to a report by National Public Radio, which drew on data collected by the CDC. Just nine states, most of them in the West, saw an uptick in fatal overdoses during the period. But none of them saw as substantial a jump as Alaska. Oregon had the next-highest rate of increase during that year, a 15% increase. The uptick in Alaska was three times that.

The state Department of Health cites a number of measures that officials are taking to try to prevent overdoses and steer people into treatment. Those include expanding access to behavioral health and addiction treatment through the 1115 Medicaid Waiver Service, greater use of telehealth for prescribing medication treatments like methadone, and removing barriers for prescribing new pharmaceutical options like buprenorphine. Through a program called Project HOPE, the state has also given out more than 40,000 naloxone kits, the overdose-reversing nasal spray.