Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024
Did opioid-related fatal overdoses in Wisconsin reach record highs before Joe Biden became president and have they continued to increase?
Opioid-related fatal overdoses in Wisconsin set records under Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
The latest annual statistics from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services show highs in 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2021:
2014: 628 (Obama was president)
2015: 613
2016: 850
2017: 932 (Trump became president)
2018: 839
2019: 916
2020: 1,231
2021: 1,427 (Biden became president)
2022: 1,421
The vast majority of Wisconsin opioid-related deaths are from synthetic opioids, rather than from heroin.
Synthetic opioid deaths set records under Trump and Biden:
2019: 651
2020: 1,056
2021: 1,293
2022: 1,337
Most synthetic opioid deaths are from fentanyl, which is federally approved for pain relief but widely abused. The state does not track fentanyl deaths specifically.
Mexico and China are the main sources for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the U.S., according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Wisconsin Department Of Health Services Dose of Reality: Opioid Data Summary Dashboard
- Google Docs Wisconsin DHS email 1/26/24
- Wisconsin Department Of Health Services Public Health Advisory: Fentanyl Increasingly Present in Overdose Deaths in Wisconsin
- Drug Enforcement Administration Fentanyl
- AP News US announces sweeping action against Chinese fentanyl supply chain producers
About fact briefs
Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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