LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Attorney General Dana Nessel is celebrating a projected reduction in overdose deaths in the state, indicating estimates show a 34% reduction in 2024 from the previous year.

Michigan had 2,931 overdose deaths in 2023 and 1,505 through September 2024. The state peaked in 2022 with 3,096 overdose deaths. Before the opioid epidemic began, Michigan had 455 overdose deaths in 1999.

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Michigan recorded 103,359 total deaths in 2023, the most recent data for full-year death counts. That year, Michigan had 59,784 deaths that were related to heart disease.

In September 2022, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer created a Michigan Opioids Task Force to address the number of overdose deaths. Michigan has been providing Naloxone, a drug that can reverse opioid overdoses, for free in vending machines around the state.