Minnesota Opioid Overdose Deaths Fall for a Third Straight Year: 671 in 2025, Fentanyl Deaths Down 6%
St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota: The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) on October 27 released its Statewide Trends in Drug Overdose: 2025 Data Update, showing that opioid-involved overdose deaths in Minnesota fell slightly to 671 in 2025, down from 678 in 2024, the third straight year of decrease and well below the high of 1,039 recorded in 2022.
Fentanyl-involved deaths decreased 6%, from 602 in 2024 to 564 in 2025, and nonfatal opioid-involved overdose hospitalizations fell about 2%, from 3,685 to 3,617, according to the report. “We continue to see progress on preventing deadly opioid overdoses with our comprehensive public health approach involving prevention, naloxone, treatment, harm reduction and recovery services,” said Minnesota Commissioner of Health Dr. Brooke Cunningham, adding that the state must apply those learnings to the growing health impacts of stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine.
Overall drug overdose deaths, however, rose 3%, from 994 in 2024 to 1,025 in 2025, driven by an increase in stimulant-involved deaths. Fatal overdoses involving psychostimulants such as methamphetamine increased 11% and fatal overdoses involving cocaine increased 6%. Nonfatal stimulant-involved overdose hospitalizations rose 11%, from 1,047 to 1,162, including a 17% increase for methamphetamine (427 to 499) and a 7% increase for cocaine (352 to 376). For every Minnesotan who died of a drug overdose in 2025, 14 were treated in a Minnesota hospital and survived, for a total of 14,614 hospital visits.
The report also found that mixed drug use is the primary pattern in Minnesota overdose deaths, accounting for 70% of overdose deaths since 2020, and that deaths involving both opioids and stimulants more than doubled, from 154 in 2019 to 371 in 2025.
As part of the state's opioid prevention efforts, MDH and the Minnesota Office of Emergency Medical Services (OEMS) on October 1 launched MN-OD-ALERTS, a statewide overdose response system that uses EMS data to detect spikes, clusters and novel drug threats in near real-time; 76 of Minnesota's 87 counties have provided a contact for the alert system. “Emergency medical services (EMS) providers are often the first to see when something is changing in a community,” said Dylan Ferguson, director of the Office of Emergency Medical Services. MDH also reminded residents that the 988 Minnesota Lifeline offers free support related to mental health, alcohol or drug use.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于圣保罗的明尼苏达州议会大厦（资料图）。Mulad 摄，公共领域，来源：Wikimedia Commons / Photo: The Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul (file photo). Photo by Mulad, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
