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Michiganians are dying of opioid overdoses in ever-higher numbers, although the rate of year-over-year increase is slowing, which must qualify as the dimmest sort of hope in a very bleak picture, but there you are.
Multiple media sources report the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services data. As The Detroit News writes:
Preliminary data showed 1,941 of the 2,729 overdose deaths in 2017 were opioid-related, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. It represented an 8.7 percent increase from the 1,786 opioid-related deaths in 2016, which was a slower growth rate than last year's 35 percent jump in opioid-related overdose deaths from the 1,320 deaths in 2015.
Part of the increase is resulting from a new definition that the state has adopted that corresponds to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyses and is more comprehensive in detecting opioid deaths, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
The state now includes deaths attributed to opium and unspecified narcotics, which were not previously included in Michigan data. There is also more vigilance among medical examiners and others to look for opioid-related deaths and note them on death certificates, said Lynn Sutfin, a state health department spokeswoman.
In other words, things remain grim, and please get help if you can.
