Suffolk County officials predict that opioid-related deaths in 2019 will be down at least 25% from the year before.
That’s according to a report released Thursday by the Suffolk County Heroin and Opiate Epidemic Advisory Panel.
But it’s hard for officials to be certain: more than 100 fatal drug overdoses have not yet been accounted for by the county medical examiner. The county is backlogged four years in reviewing overdose data.
Figures show that the number of deaths related to the synthetic opioid fentanyl have dropped since 2018.
