Drug overdose deaths holding steady in New Hampshire

SALEM, N.H. (AP) — Drug overdose deaths in New Hampshire are holding steady, but it’s too soon to celebrate the state’s relative success, Gov. Chris Sununu said Thursday.

Overdose deaths increased in every state except New Hampshire and South Dakota in 2020, according to a recent report from the National Center for Health Statistics. The state medical examiner’s most recent data show 416 confirmed and two possible deaths in 2020, compared to 415 the previous year. So far this year, there have been 214 confirmed or possible deaths, which is slightly lower than the year-to-date total in July 2020 but slightly higher than the July 2019 total.

Sununu highlighted the statistics at a news conference after he toured the Granite Recovery Center in Salem, a 400-bed facility that offers detox, residential and outpatient services to those fighting substance use disorders.

“We all assumed our numbers would fly through the roof in 2020 and amazingly, New Hampshire’s didn’t,” he said. “But as good as this news is, this kinda scares me a little bit. We haven’t won this. We’ve got so long to go.”

Once among the states hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, New Hampshire spent millions in federal funds in 2019 to create a hub-and-spoke model called “The Doorway” in which hospitals and others work with local providers to ensure that help is less than an hour away anywhere in the state. That has been “an incredibly effective entry point,” said Patrick Tufts, CEO of Granite United Way and head of the Governor’s Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention, Intervention, and Treatment. But the state also needs to focus on prevention and providing help with transportation, child care and jobs for those in recovery, he said.

“What we’re learning, and what we need to continue to work on is,...