Arizona opioid overdoses drop: Maricopa County sees dramatic decrease in overdoses

TEMPE, Ariz. - Opioid overdoses are dropping dramatically in Maricopa County, and that is also true for several counties in Arizona. The Arizona Department of Health Services says overdoses went down by more than half.

Local perspective:

Looking at memorials for her family members, Peggy Hernandez remembers her son and nephew she lost to fentanyl, and her other son and son-in-law she lost to opioids.

"I couldn’t save my sons or my nephew or my son-in-law, so if I could help one family, then my sons didn’t die for nothing," Hernandez said.

That is why she quit her job to work for an addiction treatment center and also founded the J and M Walk to Fight to raise awareness about the dangers of fentanyl.

"There's help out there, and that we're willing to help them," Hernandez said.

Why you should care:

For Hernandez, that help starts on the streets, handing out naloxone to people living in local parks.

"They're not just out there because they want to be," Hernandez said. "They're out there because they have a disease and they got addicted to something that they don't know or they're scared to get off of."

Big picture view:

Similarly, Tempe police and fire crews carry naloxone, partnering with outreach groups to get people into treatment quickly. Mary Mezey, the City of Tempe deputy director of community health and human services, emphasized the importance of reaching individuals immediately following an overdose event.

"It's really connecting with people during that golden hour when they've had a recent overdose and knowing that folks oftentimes have high motivation to get into treatment," Mezey said.

By the numbers:

To prevent overdoses, the City is also pushing for more education in schools. Since the peak of opioid overdoses in 2021, the City of Tempe has recently seen a 10% drop.

"While we've seen progress, we know that we definitely don't want to take our foot off," Mezey said. "This is still a critical issue."

Dig deeper:

Since last year, the Arizona Department of Health says overdoses dropped by more than 2,300 in Maricopa County. Overdoses also went down by over half in Pima and Pinal counties. Still, Hernandez says Arizona needs to do more, such as training parents to recognize signs of fentanyl use and overdoses.

"We want to bring them out to get them the resources that they may need, or just the information, so don't blind yourself and say not my child," Hernandez said.

What's next:

Hernandez says her organization's annual awareness walk is coming up in November, where they will be handing out resources like naloxone.