- Those deaths, in large part, are due to the prevalence and popularity of mixing fentanyl into other drugs, such as cocaine and heroin
- The number of people who died from opioids in 2022 rose to 1,421
The number of opioid deaths has been steadily growing in Wisconsin, a fact that has been shown in data since the early 2000s.
As the number of deaths has continued to rise, except for a small drop in the year before the pandemic, opioids and their use both illicitly and legally has come under fire, with politicians taking aim at how to solve the problem.
In a Jan. 21, 2023 post to X, formerly known as Twitter, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, took aim at the “unacceptable” number of opioid deaths in Wisconsin over the next few years.
“Wisconsin had over 1400 opioid deaths in 2022,” she said.
Is that true?
Opioid deaths have increased due to fentanyl
When we reached out to Baldwin’s team, they pointed to data from Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services, It showed 1,421 deaths in 2022 were related to opioids in the state.