Hope rises as New Jersey’s overdose deaths significantly drop

🔴 Fatal overdoses drop in New Jersey to the lowest levels since the pandemic.

🔴 The decline in deaths far outpaced the national average.

New Jersey is leading the fight against heroin and opioid overdose deaths, which have dropped to their lowest levels in five years, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There were 1,312 suspected overdose deaths in New Jersey last year, according to the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey. That's a sharp drop of 27% from 2024, and outpaces the national decrease of 20%.

It's an even better story — a dip of over 50% — compared to the height of the pandemic, according to NJ Cares, a database run by the Attorney General's Office. In 2020, there were 2,954 confirmed overdose deaths, and in 2021, that number increased to a peak of 3,047.

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The state is heading in the right direction, but the work can't stop until the number of overdose deaths drops to zero, said Angelo Valente, executive director of the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey.

“Every overdose death changes the lives of a New Jersey family forever. We believe that prevention, education, treatment access, and stigma reduction all have to continue if we’re going to keep moving in the right direction," Valente said.

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That treatment access includes widespread use of Naloxone, which reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. According to NJ Cares, the synthetic drug was officially used 9,852 times last year through the end of November. Data from December is not yet available.

On Thursday morning, PDFNJ is hosting an educational opioid webinar. It starts at 11 a.m., and more information can be found here: knockoutday.drugfreenj.org.

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