WASHINGTON — New figures show nearly 2,000 Kentuckians died from a drug overdose last year, a decline of nearly 10% from the year before.
What You Need To Know
- Overdose deaths in Kentucky declined by 10% in 2023
- Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky., said he’s encouraged by the decrease but concerned about a 5% increase in deaths among Black Kentuckians
- The Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition has partnered with Omni Resource Services to hire more than a dozen Black residents to hand out naloxone and fentanyl test strips
- The goal is to empower others to step in and save someone else
Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky., said he’s encouraged by the decrease but concerned by a contrasting trend. That's a 5% increase in deaths among Black Kentuckians.
“That was down from a 22% jump in 2022, meaning that the increase is lessening and lessening, significantly,” Beshear said last month. “But it does say that we have to continue to act intentionally, that we have to refuse to say any increase is OK and instead ensure that every demographic, every single one of any kind in Kentucky, sees the type of success that we’re talking about in our overall numbers.”
Shreeta Waldon, Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition executive director, said she was speaking at an event in Louisville last week when she saw a Black man in the audience who appeared to need help.
She administered the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, available in her organization’s free, public vending machine.
“It was such a gratitude and humbling moment, seeing a person who looked like me, a person that's only maybe a few years older or younger than me, who doesn't fit the bill of what we have seen come to our syringe service programs all the time actually get help and be able to turn around and say, ‘Thank you all for saving my life,’” Waldon said.
It was a moment that underscored the importance of their work and the challenges laid out in the state report.
She said the Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition partnered with Omni Resource Services over the weekend to hire more than a dozen Black residents to hand out naloxone and fentanyl test strips.
“We are really targeting some of our communities where a lot more of our Black and Indigenous and communities of color live, so we're talking about the West End of Louisville,” Waldon said. “We're talking about Russell. We're talking about Chickasaw, California neighborhood, Shively.”
The goal is to empower others to step in and save someone else.
“Not another life,” Waldon said. “One life is too many. Not another life.”
According to the Kentucky Drug Overdose Fatality Report, fentanyl accounted for nearly 80% of overdose deaths in 2023 and those between 35 and 44 years old had the highest number of deaths.