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Opiates
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– News from elsewhere covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.    

 

Opioid-related deaths decline appear to have slightly per a just released state report.

 

Newly released data as well as projections made by the Massachusetts Department suggest that opioid fatalities in Massachusetts during the first six months of 2017 may have declined by somewhere between two percent and five percent from the number of overdoes fatalities in 2016.

 

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The needles and the damage done
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At the same time, these projections are significantly based on making projections based on well-known shortcomings of the state coroner’s office to duly complete and then file official cause of death reports.

 

Plus, simply assuming the middle of two to five percent range of the currently but projected anticipated decline in opioid overdose fatalities in 2017 as the eventual final actual rate of change, the decline would thus be within the statistical margin of error as opposed to indicative of a change in the long ongoing upward trend line. 

 

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Opioids
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Additionally, the data in this report do not readily present total numbers overdoses. 

 

Such data would provide a better measure of the current state of the opiate abuse crisis as the currently anticipated but modest decline in overdose deaths may only be the result of better overdose response efforts even as the overall number of overdoses might still be increasing.

 

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Syringe in parking lot opposite Drug Court
Photo to the Quarry by Anonymous Quincy

Further, these just released data and projections are not parsed out by community and thus one cannot readily assess how goes the opioid epidemic at the local level.

 

Accordingly, it would not be unfair to suggest caution as regards consideration of this report as an indication of the start of a lasting decline as opposed to perhaps just a short term aberration.

Read Full Story: Rate of opioid-related deaths declines slightly in first half of 2017

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