Deaths Related to Drug Overdoses Decrease Overall While Deaths Related to Illicit Drugs Increase in 2013

Decatur, GA  – An analysis of autopsies performed by the GBI Medical Examiner’s Office in 152 counties, in which drug overdose was the cause of death or a significant contributing factor in the death has been completed.  The analysis revealed drug overdose deaths in 2013 were lower than the previous five years while the overdose deaths attributed to illicit drugs were higher than they have been during the same period.

Note: These statistics do NOT include autopsies performed by medical examiners in Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, or Rockdale Counties.

Of the 630 drug overdose deaths in 2013, there were 461 deaths which involved prescription drugs only.  The analysis also showed that 106 drug overdose deaths in 2013 involved only illicit drugs and 63 deaths were attributed to a combination of both prescription and illicit drugs.

For overdose drug deaths in 2013, the drugs found through toxicology tests in the highest numbers were as follows:

These are the top 10 of the 83 different drugs found in toxicology tests run on the 630 total overdose deaths.　 There were on average 2.69 drugs found for each death (1,693 instances of the 83 different drugs found in the 630 deaths).　

For all drug deaths, the numbers per age range for 2013 were as follows:

A breakdown by race and sex for 2013 for all drug overdose deaths follows:

A breakdown on the manner of death for 2013 drug overdose deaths follows:

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Please note: The GBI does not have a county by county breakdown of these statistics.

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