Louisiana Opioid Abatement Task Force recently received word that the 31% drop in overdose deaths from 2023 to 2024 translated to 1,700 lives saved last year. That’s down from the 2,456 lives lost to overdoses in 2023.
As the Gulf States Newsroom reports, it’s the lowest overdose rate in four years and coincides with a statewide public outreach program which includes distribution of Narcan (naloxone), typically in the form of a nasal spray medicine that quickly reverses an opioid overdose and restores a person’s ability to breathe within two to three minutes.
The drop in overdose deaths spans nearly every drug category. Opioid-related deaths fell almost 32%, deaths involving fentanyl dropped more than a third, and stimulant-related deaths were also down.
Nell Wilson, project director of the Louisiana Opioid Surveillance Program, says a big factor is the availability of medication for opioid use disorder and harm reduction supplies. Beyond Narcan, that also includes fentanyl test strips. “What we've been doing and how we've been evolving and how we're addressing this in the last two years at least in Louisiana is working.”
Wilson says the data also shows the opioid crisis is shifting away from big cities to rural parishes.” This includes a number of parishes in North and Central Louisiana. Those include Avoyelles, Caldwell, Claiborne, Natchitoches, Rapides and Winn Parishes, according to the Louisiana Opioid Surveillance Program.
Wilson also cautions that stimulant supplies in northern Louisiana are increasing ‘adulterated’ with fentanyl, leading to higher mortality in areas that were typically known for methamphetamine use, with Rapides Parish “slowly creeping up” with its drug-involved deaths.
Task force legal counsel Vic Frankowitz told members that Louisiana is nearing the end of the opioid settlement era, with only a handful of remaining cases still moving through the courts. “We have one big and eight little ones still in the pipeline,” Frankowitz said, referring first to the long-awaited Purdue Pharma settlement, which includes the Sackler family.
After years of delays — including a challenge that reached the U.S. Supreme Court — the settlement is now moving forward. Louisiana is expected to receive roughly $69 million, with the bankruptcy process likely concluding in early 2026 and funds arriving by the second quarter of that year.
