In 2023, 279 people died from a fentanyl-related overdose - up from 245 the year before. That's about a 14 percent increase. Overall, 486 people overdosed in 2023, which is about a 17 percent increase from 2022.
Travis County Medical Examiner Keith Pinckard said the majority of drug deaths are not due to a single drug but rather multiple drugs in a person's system. More than half of the people who died from fentanyl-related overdoses also had methamphetamine in their systems.
From 2021 to 2022, the number of fentanyl deaths more than doubled, but in 2023 the percentage increase in deaths was much lower.
Travis County Judge Andy Brown said that the county allocated $860,000 to overdose prevention and mitigation resources, including purchasing Narcan, the life-saving drug used to reverse the effects of an overdose.
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