Drug overdoses have claimed almost 1,300 lives in Pennsylvania so far in 2025, according to the state Department of Health.

That includes 681 overdoses involving opioids, roughly 52.5% of the overdose deaths. The 2025 data is still considered preliminary, so the totals may not include all the overdose deaths in the state.

Last year, overdoses claimed 3,300 lives and 75% of those overdose deaths involved opioids, according to the Department of Health.

Nationally, the opioid crisis peaked in the early summer of 2023, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost 111,500 lives were claimed by drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending in June 2023. The most recent CDC data shows that 73,690 people died in the 12-month period ending in April 2025.

The state’s opioid crisis peaked in 2017 when 5,429 people died from opioid overdoses. Overdose deaths fell in 2018 and 2019 but the crisis worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic as people were shut up in their homes.

However, the preliminary data suggests that the downward trend in overdose deaths since 2021 appears to be continuing.

The number of people turning up in hospital emergency departments due to overdoses has also been trending downward.

Just over 60 per 10,000 emergency department visits were for overdoses in the first quarter of 2025. That’s slightly higher than the rate in the first quarter of 2024. But otherwise, that metric is the lowest it’s been in a decade, Department of Health data shows.

While the data shows that progress is being made, lawmakers continue to debate and advance measures aimed at saving lives that could be lost to opioid abuse.

Senate Bill 95, now Act 34 of 2025, provides EMS personnel permanent authority to leave behind naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, at the scene of an overdose, offering families a critical tool to prevent future emergencies.

That provision of SB 95 went into effect earlier this month.

“EMS providers are stretched thin, especially in rural areas, and this new law gives them the flexibility to leave behind naloxone and save lives when every second matters,” Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York, said at the time the legislation was signed into law in July. Phillips-Hill was the prime sponsor of SB 95.

The new law allows EMS teams to leave any formulation of naloxone behind, including those not yet fully approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration, ensuring that families and caregivers are equipped to respond immediately to another overdose if needed.

By the numbers

Overdose deaths in the state of Pennsylvania by year:

2025 (through August): 1,297

2024: 3,336

2023: 4,719

2022: 5,165

2021: 5,356

2020: 5,179

2019: 4,483

2018: 4,456

2017: 5,429

2016: 4,543