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The woman on the bathroom floor was far gone, the color draining out of her skin and lips. She was nearly beyond reach.
That afternoon last December at the old brick school building office of PAACA — Positive Action Against Chemical Addiction — it took six or seven nasal sprays of Narcan and repeated chest compression to restore her breath. Then she sat up, and saw where she was, realized what had happened, and started crying.
“It was actually the worst overdose I ever dealt with,” said Lisa Guillemette, a recovery coach supervisor at PAACA, who revived the woman that Friday afternoon. “I had a lot of difficulty getting her back.”
She was certain the woman, who was in her 30s or early 40s, would not have survived without the Narcan, a nasal spray used to quickly counteract the effects of opioids. Also known as Naloxone, the medication has become commonly available in New Bedford and elsewhere.
That’s part of the reason why the 2024 New Bedford Police Crime Report shows drug overdoses — both fatal and non-fatal — dropping sharply the last few years, according to city officials and substance abuse treatment practitioners.
According to the report, police responded to 39 fatal drug overdoses in 2020, spiking to a recent peak of 57 in 2022. The number in 2024 was 25, a 56% drop.
Police responses to non-fatal overdoses also fell sharply. In the last five years, the number peaked at 515 in 2021, then fell steadily to 198 last year.
Overdoses in which police are involved do not reflect all overdoses, and do not reflect all drug activity.
Police Chief Paul Oliveira said the police would not necessarily be called if someone is revived with Narcan. That explains why the non-fatal overdose numbers have fallen so sharply.
In fatal overdoses, police would not necessarily be involved if the person is taken straight to a hospital without an ambulance. He said a suspicious death that turns out later to be an overdose also would not be recorded as an overdose by the police.
That explains why figures on opioid overdose deaths from the Massachusetts Department of Health do not match the police numbers. In 2023, for instance, the state recorded 76 deaths in New Bedford from opioid overdose alone, while the police responded to 45 overdose deaths.
The drop in the police numbers is striking enough, though, that practitioners figure it indicates more effective approaches to reducing the harm of substance abuse. It may also indicate less drug use overall, but that is harder to pin down.
Carl Alves, CEO of PAACA, said, “it’s happening on a national level. I think it’s, in large part, harm-reduction activities. There’s a big push to have Naloxone more available.”
Danielle Brown of Steppingstone, an agency serving people experiencing substance abuse and homelessness, said, “I think it’s really a combination of things. A lot of education has gone out, a lot of harm reduction.”
Government and nonprofits are doing a better job letting people know where to get help for substance abuse, and reaching people where they are, said Brown, director of Steppingstone’s Project FAIHR — Focused Achievements in Housing & Recovery. That includes sending outreach workers into the streets and homeless camps to find people who might be ready to enter treatment, or at least contact a practitioner, and distributing Narcan.
Brown also said the numbers seem to reflect the use of different drugs, including more stimulants such as ecstasy and methamphetamine, and more alcohol.
“I can’t stress how high alcohol is out there right now,” Brown said, mentioning, “nips,” the miniature liquor bottles. They were banned in New Bedford in 2023, but a judge last year stopped the city from enforcing the ban until a lawsuit challenging the ban is resolved.
Treatment practitioners do not tend to see the falling overdose numbers as a sign of diminishing drug use. But Stephanie Sloan, director of the New Bedford Health Department, said that has to be part of the reason — along with Narcan and education about treatment options.
“I think it’s a little bit of all of that,” Sloan said. “I don’t think there’s one driver.”
She also mentioned Narcan as a key factor, adding that the city is meeting the goal set by the state of 80 kits out in the community for every overdose death recorded here. Each kit contains two one-dose nasal applicators.
Connie Rocha-Mimoso, director of community health services for Seven Hills Behavioral Health, said 30 private businesses have agreed to keep Narcan on hand in the workplace.
“It’s community working together,” said Rocha-Mimoso, who was among those crediting the work of the Greater New Bedford Opioid Task Force for the declining overdose numbers.
The Task Force — comprising city agencies including the police, school, and health departments, and nonprofits including Seven Hills, High Point, Steppingstone, and PAACA — formed in 2015, Sloan said. Since 2018 and 2019, the Task Force has intensified efforts, said Rev. David A. Lima, pastor of the New Seasons Worship Center, who works with the Task Force.
He notes the progress, but also the constant risk of slipping back. Much depends on the drug supply.
“All it takes is one batch of drugs out on the street and you could have what we had in 2014,” when there were weeks with several overdose deaths, Lima said.
“People are still dying, so there’s still more work that needs to be done,” Sloan said. “Fatals going down to me is a sign we’re moving in the right direction.”
Email reporter Arthur Hirsch at ahirsch@newbedfordlight.org.
Great reporting, thanks