Signaling hope in the battle against opioids, Central Florida saw a nearly 7% drop in deadly drug overdoses between 2021 and 2023, part of a trend of declines seen throughout the U.S. after the frightening surges of the preceding decade.
Data presented by the local Project Opioid on Monday shows the decline in overdose deaths in Central Florida in that period — which the nonprofit calculated using data from Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties — outpaced those seen in Florida and nationwide, which saw decreases of 5.9% and 1.5%, respectively. The drops followed a record-breaking death count of more than 8,200 people statewide in 2021.
Of the three Central Florida counties considered by Project Opioid, Osceola was the only one to see an upward trend in overdose deaths since 2021, with a staggering 20.2% increase by 2023. Orange saw a 6.6% decrease in overdose deaths over that period, while Lake County, which was not included in Project Opioid’s calculation, saw a nearly 15% decrease, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control. Other CDC data suggest the trend accelerated in 2024…