Bartholomew County is expected to record an annual decline in drug overdose deaths for the third consecutive year, with local officials expressing “cautious optimism” that the community will continue to make progress in reducing deaths.

A total of 21 overdose deaths were reported in Bartholomew County in 2025, according to preliminary data from the Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office. That would be a decline from 22 deaths in 2024, 25 deaths in 2023 and a record 39 deaths in 2022.

The coroner’s office cautioned that the data is preliminary at this point and may be adjusted later as officials validate records for the office’s annual report, which is expected to be released by the end of this month.

“Three consecutive years of decreases is good news and cause for cautious optimism,” said Bartholomew County Deputy Coroner Jay Frederick. “It’s also noteworthy that we did not have any apparent overdose deaths in the fourth quarter of 2025.”

Dr. Kevin Terrell, medical director at Columbus Regional Health’s Treatment and Support Center, or TASC, also welcomed the third consecutive annual decline in overdose deaths. TASC, 2630 22nd St., provides a range of outpatient treatments for substance use disorder.

“The decline in overdose death rates in 2025 is great news for our community,” Terrell said. “I am thrilled that the trend continues. I was very concerned that the decrease we saw in 2023 was a fluke, but the reductions in death rates have continued for an additional two years. This makes me more optimistic that we will continue to make progress on the opioid epidemic.”

Terrell said last month that TASC had been consistently seeing over 400 active patients. The most common drug that people have been seeking help with is methamphetamine, followed closely by fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is more potent than heroin but is cheaper to produce and distribute. Officials have said fentanyl is increasingly being cut with other drugs, including counterfeit pills.

At the same time, TASC has continued to see a “large and growing number of patients” seeking help for alcohol problems, Terrell said.

Many experts attribute the growing numbers of people struggling with alcohol abuse to the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were stuck at home and isolated from others, Terrell said. Many people turned to alcohol to cope with the loneliness and despair people experienced during the pandemic.

“I am pleased that so many people who are struggling with alcohol are coming in for help,” Terrell said.

The preliminary annual figures from the coroner’s office come a few months after the federal government reported that there were 30,000 fewer U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2024 than the year before — the largest one-year decline ever recorded, The Associated Press reported.

An estimated 80,000 people died from overdoses last year, according to provisional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Wednesday, according to wire reports. That’s down 27% from the 110,000 in 2023.

The CDC has been collecting comparable data for 45 years. The previous largest one-year drop was 4% in 2018, according to the agency’s National Center for Health Statistics.

All but two states saw declines last year, with Nevada and South Dakota experiencing small increases, according to wire reports. Some of the biggest drops were in Ohio, West Virginia and other states that have been hard-hit in the nation’s decades-long overdose epidemic, according to wire reports.

There were 1,695 overdose deaths in Indiana during the 12-month period that ended in December 2024, down from 2,193 during the same period in 2023 — a 23% decline — according to the provisional CDC data.

Bartholomew County has seen declines in overdose deaths in each of the previous three years after surging to records highs in 2020, 2021 and 2022, according to county records. Overdose deaths in the county declined 36% in 2023, 12% in 2024 and 5% in 2025.

Before 2020, annual overdose deaths in the county had eclipsed 20 two times within the previous five years. Since the pandemic struck, annual overdose deaths have been higher than 20 for six straight years, including three years above 30.

A total of 260 people in Bartholomew County died from an overdose from 2015 to 2025, according to county records.

“We have a long way to go to return to pre-epidemic levels,” Frederick said.

Experts say more research needs to be done to understand what drove the reduction, but they mention several possible factors, including, among other things, increased availability of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, expanded addiction treatment, shifts in how people use drugs, the impact of opioid lawsuit settlement money, according to wire reports.

Frederick said it would take in-depth research to determine what factors may have contributed to the local decline in overdose deaths, but the coroner’s office “would prefer to believe” that the reduction was driven by increased public awareness about the fatal risks of street drugs, the increased availability of naloxone and steady law enforcement targeting drug dealers.

“Our office publicly presents drug overdose deaths in terms of statistics to respect the privacy of individuals and their families,” Frederick said. “But it is important to recognize that each case involves an individual story. Too often, it’s the story of a young person who otherwise had plenty of life ahead. Many families choose to share their painful story on social media or in other news features, hoping it can prevent similar deaths. It’s possible that individual stories and photos of young faces have helped drive the overall numbers down.”
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