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

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

There were 357 drug overdose deaths in 2023, an increase of nearly 45% from the previous year and by far the highest number in a single year. In 2022, another near-record year, state officials counted 247 overdose deaths.

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

“As a result of this increase, Alaska recorded its highest drug overdose death rate ever in 2023. This is contrary to the national trend, which saw the overdose death rate decline in 2023 for the first time since 2018,” the state report authors said.

The main driver of the trend is opioids, particularly the powerful synthetic painkiller fentanyl, which now dominates the supply of drugs sold on the street. Fentanyl accounted for 74 percent of overdose deaths, compared to just 16 total deaths attributed to heroin, which until a few years ago was the main opioid causing fatal overdoses in Alaska and most other Western states.

The other culprit is multiple substance abuse: the regular use of multiple drugs in combination. According to the most recent data, 54% of deaths were due to methamphetamine used in conjunction with another drug, typically narcotics such as fentanyl. The availability and potency of both substances has increased sharply across the country in recent years as production moved to industrial laboratories run by transnational criminal networks abroad.

“Multiple consumption can be a significant factor in overdose mortality due to the physiological effects on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems when mixing different substances. Of all overdose deaths between 2019 and 2023, 59% were due to two or more narcotics, sedatives or psychotropic drugs,” the report said.

The Anchorage region had by far the highest rate of overdose deaths of any region in the state, with nearly 80 deaths per 100,000 residents. The second highest rate was in southeast Alaska at 40.1.

Men die from overdoses more often than women, accounting for 63% of fatal overdoses.

Similarly, 33% of drug overdose deaths last year were among Alaska Natives and American Indians, even though they make up less than 20% of the state's total population. According to the data, 170 white Alaskans died, nearly half of all reported fatalities.

Fatal overdoses nationwide fell by more than 10% in a 12-month period from April 2023 to April 2024, according to a National Public Radio report based on data collected by the CDC. Only nine states, most of them in the West, saw an increase in fatal overdoses during the period. But none of them experienced a jump as big as Alaska. Oregon had the second highest rate of increase this year with a 15% increase. In Alaska the increase was three times as high.

The state Department of Health lists a number of measures officials are taking to prevent overdoses and get people into treatment. These include expanding access to behavioral health and addiction treatment through the 1115 Medicaid Waiver Service, increasing the use of telemedicine to prescribe medications such as methadone, and removing barriers to prescribing new drug options such as buprenorphine. The state has also distributed more than 40,000 kits of naloxone, the nasal spray against overdose, through a program called Project HOPE.