These MI Counties Lead State In Opioid, Fentanyl Deaths: Report

MICHIGAN — Genesee County has the highest rates of opioid and other drug overdose deaths in Michigan, according to a tracker based on federal health data.

A study published in The Lancet last year found the North American opioid crisis was driven by insufficient regulation of the pharmaceutical and health care industries, enabling a “profit-driven quadrupling of opioid prescribing” for a broad range of chronic, non-cancer pain conditions.

As a result, hundreds of thousands of people have fatally overdosed on prescription opioids and millions more became addicted, the researchers said. As a result, heroin markets became saturated with synthetics, including the more deadly and cheaper fentanyl.

There were six times more drug overdose deaths in 2021 than in 1999, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. More than 75 percent of the nearly 107,000 drug overdose deaths in 2021 involved an opioid or synthetic opioid. Since 1999, more than a million people nationwide have died of drug overdoses, according to CDC data.

A data visualization by the San Francisco Chronicle shows overdose deaths per 100,000 residents and the share of deaths that involve fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. Here are the 10 places in Michigan where fentanyl and other drug overdose deaths are occurring:

Genesee County: The drug overdose death rate was 63.4 percent (255 deaths) per 100,000 people in 2022. That’s up from 58.8 percent per 100,000 people 64 percent of which were Fentanyl-related, in 2018. By comparison, 71 percent were Fentanyl-related in 2022.

Wayne County: The drug overdose death rate was 54.8 percent (963 deaths) per 100,000 people in 2022. That’s up from 50.8 percent per 100,000 people 75 percent of which were Fentanyl-related, in 2018. By comparison, 83 percent were Fentanyl-related in 2022.

Ingham County: The drug overdose death rate was 46.8 percent (133 deaths) per 100,000 people in 2022. That’s up from 33.3 percent per 100,000 people 60 percent of which were Fentanyl-related, in 2018. By comparison, 81 percent were Fentanyl-related in 2022.

Muskegon County: The drug overdose death rate was 41.9 percent (74 deaths) per 100,000 people in 2022. That’s up from 27.6 percent per 100,000 people 38 percent of which were Fentanyl-related, in 2018. By comparison, 77 percent were Fentanyl-related in 2022.