Although opioid-related deaths continue to grow in Missouri, the increase is slowing down, according to a news release from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
Hundreds of Missourians die each year from opioid use. In 2015, 672 people died from opioid or heroin use, according to the release. In 2016, 908 people died, a 35 percent spike from the year before. Even more people — 951 — died from opioid use in 2017. That’s still an increase, but only by 4.7 percent.
“There is no group of people who are immune to opioid addiction,” said Steve Corsi, the director of the Missouri Department of Social Services, in the news release. “We’ve made great strides in shifting the trajectory of opioid deaths in Missouri over the past year and we want to see that progress accelerate.”
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