Drug Overdose Deaths Fall by 39% in Camden County

CAMDEN – Citing preliminary drug overdose data, Camden County officials on Monday said the county's 39% decline in suspected drug deaths in the first half of 2024 indicates the county is winning the battle against the scourge.

In the first six months of 2024 109 people in Camden County were suspected of dying from drug overdoses, compared with 179 and 178 in the same periods in 2023 and 2022, respectively.

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The data reflect only suspected drug overdoses and are preliminary, according to the New Jersey Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner , which produces the statistics.

However, the dip in suspected drug deaths parallels a 40% decline – to 511 from 851 – in the number of doses of naloxone administered in Camden County in the same period, the county reported, quoting New Jersey Department of Health data. Naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan and others, can reverse the effects of a drug overdose.

“This report shows that curbing overdose is possible through a variety of harm-reduction measures, such as making Narcan and medically assisted treatment widely available," County Commissioner Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said in a statement. "What can’t be discounted is the wide range of educational initiatives we have funded and produced to warn the public of the deadly impact of fentanyl."

For the full year last year, the number of suspected drug deaths in the county dropped to 326 from 354, an 8% decline. The year-over-year decrease is similar to the overall United States, where the CDC National Center for Health Statistics reported that last year an estimated 107,543 people died from drug overdoses, down 3% from 111,029 in 2022.

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The national drop-off was the first decrease since 2018, according to the report.

From January through July 13, the state medical examiner's office reported that 586 of the 1,087 statewide suspected drug deaths, or 54%, were among whites. Blacks accounted for 281, or 26%, and Hispanics for 166, or 15%. Males accounted for 72%, or 786, of the suspected deaths statewide so far this year.

Statewide to date, the 35-to-44-year-old group accounted for the greatest number of deaths, followed by 55 to 64 and 45 to 54.

Camden County in the last 10 years introduced several initiatives to battle drugs and overdoses, including:

• Installing naloxone boxes in every school, park and county-owned building to expand access to the overdose reversal medication.
• Crafting a nationally recognized Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) program at the Camden County Correctional Facility that has shown to reduce overdoses of participants on a large scale after release.
• Using funds from the Opioid Settlement to introduce a mobile Buprenorphine pilot program where medically assisted treatment is dispensed from an outreach van and provides take-home naloxone kits to overdose and substance-use disorder patients treated in emergency departments.
• Launching an extensive fentanyl awareness campaign to make people aware of how deadly the drug can be.
• Providing free naloxone training sessions, fentanyl test strips and NaloxBoxes for social service organizations.

Anyone seeking addiction assistance should call 1-844-ReachNJ (732-2465), which provides free professional support for those facing addiction and their loved ones. If you are a Camden County resident suffering from substance abuse disorder, call the Office of Mental Health and Addiction at (856) 374-6361.

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