- According to leaders at UM Health-Sparrow, despite the overall improvement, opioids, particularly fentanyl, remain the primary cause of drug-related deaths in Mid-Michigan.
- One neighbor sits down to talk to me about how he's been impacted.
- Video shows the current statistics of drug-related deaths in our neighborhoods.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
"That's somebody's son, that's somebody's daughter that's overdosing," neighbor Jerry Norris said.
Norris said he spends his free time helping those struggling with addiction.
"In that effort, we have come across a lot of people who have substance use disorder," he said.
For Norris, his efforts hit close to home.
"My oldest daughter was a heroin addict. She died of a fentanyl overdose in 2017," Norris said.
Since 2012, Norris has fought hard to help, and he said he's nowhere near finished.
"You can go a lot of places and see Narcan now," he said.
Amanda Wallace, the team leader of investigations at UM Health-Sparrow, said in the latest annual drug report, seven counties in Mid-Michigan saw a decline in 2024 drug-related deaths.
"We consider a drug-related death when there is an intoxication of a substance that contributed to the person passing away," Wallace said.
She said since the epidemic first hit, the number of drug-related deaths has continued to go down. In Ingham County, she said there has been a significant decline in the percentage of drug-related deaths.
"It dropped more dramatically, which is not surprising based on the population in the counties that we serve," Wallace said.
She added that last year, 75% of drug overdoses involved opioid use, and the year before, 60% involved opioid use.
"I'm hoping in 2025 that we will see even fewer than what we saw in 2024," Wallace said.
But for neighbors like Norris, he said there's still much more work to be done to continue bringing that number down.
"It all comes back to similar root causes, and that's 'I use to feel better,' and if we could make them feel better as a society, that could go a long way," he said.
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