The opioid epidemic continues to cast a long shadow over Louisiana, but health officials say there are signs of progress.
According to Dr. Pete Croughan, Deputy Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), the state is seeing a steady decline in opioid-related deaths, with the New Orleans coroner reporting an 8% decrease in the most recent data.
“We’ve made a lot of progress,” said Dr. Croughan. “We’re starting to see the impact of medications that help people recover and stay clean.”
Still, the fight is far from over.
Dr. Croughan says fentanyl remains a major hurdle, often showing up in drugs that users didn’t know were laced.
“Nowadays, fentanyl is everywhere,” he said. “People are dying who never intended to take opioids. They think they’re buying one thing and end up taking something completely different.”
He says marijuana even Adderall gets laced with the drug.
Dr. Croughan says awareness and access are now two of the biggest barriers. Croughan emphasizes that more lives could be saved if people knew about, and could reach, the tools that have already helped thousands.
“There are medications and treatment plans that work,” he said. “The issue is that less than twenty percent of people can get them.”
State leaders are continuing to invest in prevention, education, and harm reduction strategies as the landscape of the crisis shifts.
But as Dr. Croughan puts it, “We’ve made progress, but we still have a long way to go.”
