Non-opioid overdose deaths rose during the pandemic, driven by cocaine use

Non-opioid overdose deaths among Vermonters spiked during the pandemic, fueled by cocaine, prescription medication and alcohol, according to a new report issued by the state Department of Health.

Between 2013 and 2022, these non-opioid overdoses peaked at 29 deaths in 2020, the year the Covid-19 pandemic reached Vermont, the report shows. The figure represents a 70% increase from the 17 such deaths the state recorded in 2019 — though non-opioid fatalities remain a fraction of the opioid overdoses that have claimed hundreds of Vermonters’ lives.

Of the 1,462 fatal drug overdoses the health department analyzed during the 10-year period, 181 involved non-opioid substances. The most common of those was cocaine (39%), followed by prescription medication (31%) and alcohol (24%).

According to the report, these prescription medications include benzodiazepines, antidepressants, antipsychotics and muscle relaxants.

Though non-opioid accidental overdose deaths have since decreased — to 27 cases in 2021 and 25 in 2022 — they’re still significantly higher than the pre-pandemic numbers.

Danielle Wallace, director of the Turning Point Center of Addison County, said that in 2021, while working at the local restorative justice center when offices reopened during the pandemic, she noticed an increase in clients using stimulants. Those include cocaine, methamphetamine and prescription drugs, such as amphetamines.

Wallace said she was not surprised to learn from the state report that Addison is among the counties where cocaine has been a leading cause of non-opioid deaths, alongside Bennington, Chittenden, Grand Isle and Windham counties.

She attributes the trend to the same factors that have led to the rise in opioid overdose deaths among Vermonters since the pandemic started. The public health emergency upended people’s lives through ailments, deaths, social isolation, job and home losses, which brought about depression, anxiety and stress.

“It’s just another way to escape,” Wallace said. “A lot of the people that I know that were coming into my office on stimulants had once been struggling with opioids and may still have some of that.”

Meanwhile, accidental opioid overdoses remain on an upward trajectory. After a decline in 2019, opioid fatalities have been climbing each year, with 243 Vermonters dying from them in 2022. The state’s latest data shows 201 such deaths through October 2023.