Chalk up another unwanted record for Hampton Roads: The number of people killed by drug overdoses here was at a new high last year, a record 617 deaths.
Hampton Roads communities and Virginia as a whole have been battling this deadly trend, but people keep dying, tragically and senselessly. We know the numbers, we know the reasons, and we have been trying to do what’s needed. We must try harder, must do more.
The overdose death toll in the Hampton Roads region for 2022 is an increase of 3.7% over 2021. That may not seem like a huge jump, but it’s part of an alarming increase over the past decade, when drug overdose deaths have nearly tripled.
When everything is evaluated, in fact, the 2022 overdose death toll across the commonwealth is expected to be about 2,600, down slightly from the previous year,. fatality figures are down a little in some cities, including Norfolk, from the record highs of the year before.
A slight dip doesn’t mean we’re getting the problem under control. More likely, it means that the major spike in overdose deaths in 2021, linked to the isolation and disruption of COVID, has leveled off. It’s obvious that the massive problem is still very much with us.
Consider this: Drug overdoses are the No. 1 cause of unnatural deaths in Virginia, killing more people than gunshot wounds and car crashes combined.
And Hampton Roads is one of the hardest hit areas. Portsmouth, with 98 overdose deaths last year, was the deadliest city in the region per capita, fourth in the state behind Petersburg, Richmond and Roanoke in fatal overdoses per 100,000 people. For sheer numbers, Norfolk, with 120 overdose deaths, was worst in the region, followed closely by Virginia Beach’s 117.
Why are there so many fatal overdoses? We know the answer; it’s well documented. There are many reasons why people misuse powerful, usually illegally obtained, drugs. But the overwhelming reason so many of those die is fentanyl.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that started as a prescription drug used mainly to ease severe pain, often in terminally ill patients. Its potency gives an intense high quickly.
It’s also cheaper and easier to produce than natural opioids such as heroin. The fentanyl produced in illegal labs, many of them in China, finds its way into the hands of drug traffickers who sell it to dealers eager to cash in on people’s weaknesses.
Dealers lace other drugs with fentanyl because it’s relatively cheap and powerful. Recently, some addicts specifically look for fentanyl. In either case, it’s a dangerous proposition: A slight miscalculation in the drug mixing, a tiny bit too much fentanyl, and a user can be struggling to breathe. Death can come quickly.
Community and state leaders have made battling this tragedy a priority. Gov. Glenn Youngkin in May signed executive orders ramping up strategies against fentanyl abuse through public safety, prevention, education and treatment. His administration is spreading the word that “One Pill Can Kill.” It’s promoting training so that people will recognize overdose symptoms, have available and quickly use naloxone, a medication available over the counter that can counter symptoms until first responders arrive.
The General Assembly passed several bills this year mainly designed to get tougher on drug traffickers and dealers.
Obviously, it’s vitally important to stop those who are pushing deadly fentanyl in Hampton Roads and across Virginia. Reining that trafficking in will take much time and effort, though, and will probably never be complete.
We must work from the other direction, too, strengthening existing efforts and devising new ones to address the problems that cause people to turn to drugs that can so easily kill them. Much of that is something we know, too: hopelessness, isolation, depression, stress and related mental and emotional illnesses. In Virginia, researchers have noticed a particular spike in drug overdose deaths among Black males, who face discrimination in many areas of life.
We cannot wait while people are needlessly dying.
