Opioid deaths among Vermonters appear to have dipped in 2023, according to new data from the state Department of Health, following three consecutive years of record-breaking fatalities. 

According to the report, which was released Wednesday, 231 state residents are confirmed to have died from an opioid-related overdose last year, down from 244 in 2022. The projected 5% decrease “is not statistically large,” Health Commissioner Mark Levine said in a press release, but the progress is encouraging. 

“It is significant where it matters most — fewer families have lost a loved one to opioids,” Levine said. 

The data is preliminary, however, and 15 pending death certificates could still push the tally above the previous year’s. After all the cases were resolved for 2022, seven more deaths were added to that year’s preliminary total. 

Opioid-related fatalities accounted for 90% of all overdose deaths last year, according to the report. A vast majority involved two or more substances, with 29% involving four or more. 

Fentanyl was the common denominator in most opioid-related deaths, showing up in 95% of death certificates. Just a two-milligram dose of the synthetic opioid can be lethal, and it is often laced into other drugs to increase their potency without users knowing it. 

Cocaine saw the biggest increase in involvement in opioid-related deaths, jumping to 63% in 2023, up from 48% in 2022. That makes the stimulant the second-most common substance found in overdose deaths. 

Xylazine, an animal tranquilizer linked to an increase in blood infections, also had a bigger presence last year, rising to 32% from 28% in 2022. The powerful sedative causes necrotic flesh wounds prone to infection, which can result in hospitalization and death if left untreated. 

Gabapentin, an anticonvulsant drug abused for its euphoria-producing effects, provided a glimmer of good news in the report. The drug, which causes respiratory depression, was involved in the deaths of 31 Vermonters in 2022, but that figure declined to 24 people last year.  

“It means we are on the right track, but we are far from out of the woods,” Levine said of the overall results of the report. 

Vermont has tried to address the crisis in several ways. In 2013 it began distributing Naloxone, an opioid-overdose antidote, to community centers. Last year, the state started ordering xylazine test strips. And this week, state legislators passed a bill that would create a pilot safe injection site in Burlington — and they may have the votes to override a likely gubernatorial veto. 

On the ground, however, there is little sense that Vermont is bending the curve on opioid overdoses, according to Tracie Hauk, director of the Rutland Turning Point recovery center. 

“That’s not the feeling we’re getting, that overdose deaths are down,” Hauk said. 

Rutland County had the third-highest rate of opioid-related overdose deaths in 2023, at 54 per 100,000 people. Hauk said her center had seen a steady influx of people struggling with substance use disorder compared to 2022. 

“We have seen xylazine, lots of sores,” she said. 

And although Hauk said she appreciated the efforts of state government, she said nothing she had seen so far indicated to her that the trend line was going to start pointing downwards. 

“I don’t take that data as a ‘we’re winning’ against overdoses,” she said.