The number of yearly opioid overdose deaths in Milwaukee County continues to decline. Compared to 2022, there’s been a 54% decrease in fatal opioid overdoses, according to the county’s latest update to its Overdose Dashboard.

At a press conference April 21, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said that sharing this progress comes with mixed feelings.

“That data also tells us that 387 Milwaukee County residents lost their lives to drug overdoses last year,” said Crowley. “These are our neighbors. These are our loved ones, family members.”

In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared deaths from prescription painkillers an epidemic. That’s when local governments nationwide filed lawsuits against the parties involved in manufacturing, distributing and promoting opioids.

Dr. Ben Weston is the county’s chief health policy advisor. Weston explained the severity of how the nationwide opioid crisis was felt in Milwaukee County.

“We had one person dying every 16 hours from overdose,” said Weston. “Since then, there’s been a lot of work.”

Weston added that 17 people died from an overdose in a single weekend in 2023, which he described as “unimaginable levels of opioid use in our community.”

But 2023 was also the year that Milwaukee County learned it would receive $111 million over the next 18 years through opioid settlements. Weston said much of the county’s work has been preventative, like creating affordable housing, effective transportation and accessible mental health services.

Other efforts have addressed the crisis head-on, like installing free, no-questions-asked harm reduction vending machines, adding naloxone to emergency response vehicles and creating programs to prevent drug use among people who are incarcerated.

Weston said people exiting incarceration are susceptible to the highest risk period for overdose. As for the communities that face the highest risk of fatal overdoses, American Indian and Alaska Native residents are impacted the most.

Jeremy Triblett is the prevention integration manager at the Milwaukee Department of Health and Human Services. Triblett said the county’s FOCUS initiative, which stands for Featuring Our Community’s Untold Stories, is directly addressing Milwaukee’s Black, brown and Indigenous communities “to assess how they’re accessing their substances, and culturally, how does that intersect with their cultural norms.”

A community advisory board, comprised of people of color, is helping county officials facilitate discussions on harm reduction outreach.

• New data show 387 drug overdose deaths in Milwaukee County in 2025, down about 43% from their peak in 2022.
• County officials credit efforts to increase access to Narcan, addiction treatment and drug testing strips.
• Overdose deaths caused by multiple drugs are still a concern. The combination of cocaine and fentanyl was most prevalent in the county in 2025.
• The county is spending $111 million over the next several years in opioid settlement funds.

The number of Milwaukee County residents who died from a drug overdose fell for a third year in 2025, which county officials say is a promising sign that more money spent on harm reduction, treatment and prevention efforts is working.

New data released April 21 show 387 overdose deaths across the county last year, down about 43% from their peak in 2022.

“The work is paying off,” Dr. Ben Weston, Milwaukee County’s chief health policy adviser, said at a news conference, touting the county’s vending machines stocked with Narcan and drug testing strips, as well as a state-sponsored data collection system that helps local health departments understand when and where overdoses occur.

Still, the hundreds of county residents who lost their lives last year to a drug overdose means that work isn’t close to done, officials say – especially as the drug landscape continues to change, presenting new challenges.

“We can’t let our foot off the gas quite yet,” said Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

More: What’s in Wisconsin’s plan for latest round of opioid settlement funds?

Drug mixing continues to drive lethal outcomes

Milwaukee County’s decline in overdose deaths is a trend mirrored across the state and the country, following years of climbing fatalities that were deemed a public health crisis.

The county will spend $111 million in opioid settlement funds over the next several years and is already putting what it has received to use, focusing on “reaching residents where they are,” said Jeremy Triblett, prevention integration manager with the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services.

That includes initiatives like the harm reduction vending machines and also knocking on doors, providing county EMS workers with Narcan and seeking the opinions of people who use drugs to shape the county’s strategy.

But officials say they still see a concerning trend of combinations of drugs leading to overdose, particularly fentanyl being cut with stimulants such as cocaine. These mixes of drugs make it harder to reverse an overdose, said Dr. Wieslawa Tlomak, Milwaukee County’s chief medical examiner.