The importance of overdose awareness in Mississippi
By Garret Grove,
2024-08-31
JACKSON, Miss. ( WJTV ) – As Saturday marks International Overdose Awareness Day, it serves as a stark reminder of the deadly impact of drug abuse across Mississippi.
Every August 31, the day highlights the devastating impact of drug overdoses and honors the memory of those who have lost their lives to them across the world. It also aims to reduce the stigma surrounding drug-related deaths and to spread the message that overdoses are preventable. That also rings true in Mississippi.
The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) describes Mississippi’s current drug crisis as an epidemic. Data from the Mississippi Prescription Monitoring program corroborates this. From 2019 to 2023, overdose deaths have roughly doubled. Opioid deaths have increased by over 130% since then. Roughly 5.7 times as many people died from fentanyl in Mississippi last year compared to 2019. Below are the numbers.
Harrison County, home to roughly 7.2% of Mississippi’s residents, also had 16.6% of the state’s overdose deaths between 2019-2023. It also had about 15.7% of all naloxone admissions from Emergency Medical Services.
Hinds and Rankin County trended high for both statistics as well. About 7.3% and 5.5% of all Mississippians live in both counties, respectively. However, the counties also have 8.2% and 6.5% of the state’s overdose deaths since 2019. During that timeframe, Hinds County had 10.8% of all EMS administrations of naloxone, while Rankin had 5.3%.
To help reverse these statistics, MSDH and the Opioid and Substance Use Disorder Program have worked with state partners to:
Establish a comprehensive drug abuse surveillance system
Expand access to naloxone
Expand access to outpatient opioid use disorder treatment
Improve public awareness and education on the scope of Mississippi’s drug overdose epidemic.
Provide training for healthcare professionals in opioid awareness, control and response
MSDH also offers naloxone kits to Mississippi residents at no cost. The survey to receive one takes about 15 minutes to complete.
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