The Hamilton County Addiction Response Coalition says drug overdose deaths in the county have dropped to their lowest point in more than a decade.
Data from the Hamilton County Coroner's Office shows there were 194 overdose deaths in 2025, a 30% decrease from 2024, when there were 277 deaths reported, and a significant drop from the county's peak in 2017, when 570 overdose deaths were recorded.
Meagan Guthrie, director of Hamilton County's Office of Addiction Response, says this new data shows great progress, as death totals have declined each year since 2021, but there's still work to do.
"We are now back to levels that (we were at) when we were first declared a crisis," Guthrie said. "It's not a time to let our foot off the gas. We need to continue to fund strategies that we can see are working."
The county's coalition credits the decline to its continued effort to address the crisis from all sides. The addiction response team brings together elected officials, educators, first responders, faith leaders, and treatment providers to build local infrastructure that can save lives and connect people with care, while reducing the stigma around addiction and drug treatment.
Commissioner Denise Driehaus, who chairs the coalition, says the county will continue to direct resources to the effort because it's showing results and easing the financial burden on local agencies.
"We can absolutely make the argument that not only are we saving lives, but we're saving money for all the different agencies, and also for government and the systems that support people," she said.
While the data in Hamilton County is promising, Talbert House president and coalition member, Josh Arnold, warns that as opioid deaths decline, treatment centers are seeing a rise in the use of other substances.
"We've seen some significant changes over the years on the treatment side, away from opioids and to alcohol and cocaine. Those are some of the most significant substances we're dealing with now," he said.
Arnold and others say much like the opioid crisis, the solution to addressing addiction to other substances is continuing to expand access to care.
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