Portland saw a surge in overdoses at the end of 2023, a trend that isn’t slowing over the first days of 2024.
The city saw a 62 percent surge in overdoses from November (34) to December (55), compared with 12.5 percent between November and December 2022. That includes 20 overdoses, including three fatalities, in the final week of 2023, according to Brad Nadeau, a spokesperson for the Portland Police Department.
Just over the first two days of the new year, Portland saw three overdoses, Nadeau said Thursday morning.
Overall, the city reported 527 overdoses in 2023, compared with 518 the year before. While overdoses have increased in Portland, fewer of them resulted in death, with just 47 fatalities, compared with 51 in 2022, according to Nadeau.
The average age for overdose victims in Portland was 43, and 79 percent of cases involved men.
Maine continues to grapple with a severe opioid epidemic, fueled by increasing amounts of fentanyl contaminating the opioid supply. That fueled a record-breaking 716 fatal overdoses in 2022, the first time Maine saw drug fatalities surge over 700.
Officials have been cautiously optimistic about an apparent slowdown in overdoses in 2023. There have been 559 fatal overdoses between January and November 2023, according to the latest monthly overdose report. That’s fewer overdoses than the same period last year when Maine saw 647 drug deaths.
A new law requires on-duty law enforcement to carry the overdose-reversing drug Narcan. Nadeau noted Thursday that Portland police officers have been carrying Narcan since 2016.