By Matt Petras
For the MV Independent
Mon Valley drug overdose deaths declined 59 percent from 2017 to 2018 after a 21 percent increase the previous year, the Mon Valley Opioid Coalition revealed at its first public meeting Tuesday evening in Speers.
The numbers come from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and research by the coalition in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh’s Program Evaluation and Research Unit. In 2018, 21 people in the Mon Valley died of drug overdoses, down from 51 in 2017 and 42 in 2016.
From 2016 to 2018, overdoses involving fentanyl (a narcotic) or fentanyl-related substances increased from 52 percent of all drug overdose deaths to 86 percent. In the same time span, prescription opioids’ role in overdose deaths decreased from 38 to 5 percent.
“While this shows that there’s still work to be done, what’s most important to take away is that the work of organizations like this is in fact working,” PERU research specialist Kathleen McHugh said at the meeting. “And it’s having an impact, it’s saving lives, and it’s helping to combat the opioid epidemic.”