FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joe O’Leary | Joe.OLeary@cga.ct.gov | 508-479-4969
April 14, 2026
ALONGSIDE FORMER BIDEN DRUG CONTROL POLICY DIRECTOR, CONNECTICUT LAWMAKERS AND ADVOCATES CALL FOR MORE HARM REDUCTION SUPPORT
As the opioid epidemic hits an inflection point – overdose deaths have declined 45% in Connecticut in recent years, but the state still sees more than two drug overdose deaths per day in its communities – advocates called for continued investment and change at the state level, including the development of a comprehensive plan to better address state opioid use.
Joined by Dr. Rahul Gupta, who served as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under the Biden Administration, advocates and lawmakers including State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor) and State Representative Cristin McCarthy Vahey (D-Fairfield), who chair the Public Health Committee, Dr. Scott Burris, director of Temple University’s Center for Public Health Law Research, Professor Robert Heimer, professor of epidemiology and pharmacology at Yale Institute for Global Health, Liz Evans of Liberation Systems and advocates including Dita Bhargawa and Diane Santos, who both lost children to overdoses, and Cameron Breen, a street outreach case manager and drug checking technician, called for the state to renew and improve on its investments in harm reduction, including pursuit of new models of care including overdose prevention centers.
“If we took the start of 2019 and looked at the number of people who died in motor vehicle accidents, firearms, homicide, natural disasters and serving in the military, if you put all of their deaths together, you would get to half of all deaths caused by opioids. It’s the number one preventable cause of death in our country,” said Sen. Anwar. “We’ve lost enough people that it equates to the entire population of a community in half of our state. Other parts of the country are aggressively addressing this while we are still above the national average. We need serious change in how we address this continuing disaster. Our state must invest more to address this continuing crisis and tragedy.”
“This is a really sobering moment, reflecting on more than 8,000 individuals lost in less than a decade,” said Dr. Gupta, who described the federal government’s investment of hundreds of millions of dollars into test strips, Narcan and overdose reversal drugs, risk reduction programs and treatment expansion. “This is important because we can’t save every life we can unless we do what evidence tells us. Every death from overdose is preventable. We need to take action now.”
“There has never been a new thing in harm reduction someone didn’t say was illegal,” said Dr. Burris, who has extensively studied overdose prevention centers and other overdose response strategies. “Harm reduction has always moved forward and won legal cases because it’s part of the spectrum of clinical services we need to have a comprehensive treatment plan of controlled substance use disorder. You’ll hear people tell you you can’t do that, it’s illegal, but the answer is to see them in court. Passing laws allowing health services to be given to those who need them is how we fix the health care system we have now.”
From a peak of 1,524 overdose deaths in 2021 to 836 deaths according to data from 2025, overdose deaths in the state have plummeted 45% in the last five years, a more significant decline than the national average. While that’s significant progress, it still means 836 family members and friends are dying each year throughout the state.
Public outreach, public service announcements, increased access to anti-opioid agents like Narcan and increased investment in state services have helped reduce the damage, but more can be done. Housing assistance, expanding treatment access and operating mobile opioid treatment programs are among the successful strategies adopted by the state, but with tens of millions of dollars in opioid settlement funds available as well as potential increases in funding at the state level, more investment is possible.
Connecticut needs funding to continue increasing public access to medication countering opioid use disorder, reducing overdose risks and newfound investment in training to support and expand the workforce fighting addiction.
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