New Hampshire overdose deaths fell by 33.4% in 2024, reaching the lowest level in a decade, according to a new study by the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute. Faculty and students within the Dartmouth community credited significant increases in New Hampshire’s substance-use treatment funding and discussed the science of combating addiction.
The study, published Sept. 30, found that there were 287 drug-related deaths in the state in 2024, a sharp drop from a peak of 490 deaths in 2017. The same study noted that from 2014 to 2018, New Hampshire’s drug-related mortality rate was among the highest in the nation.
In a 2017 call with the then-Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto, President Donald Trump called New Hampshire “a drug-infested den,” according to The Washington Post.
Since 2014, New Hampshire has increased annual spending on substance use disorder services by roughly 450%, with the state now investing over $834 million into prevention and treatment services, according to the NHFPI study. The study also notes that state and federal funding have built a network of recovery centers, expanded medication-assisted treatment programs and increased access to naloxone, an opioid-overdose reversal drug.
Assistant professor of psychology and brain sciences Shelly M. Warlow said the funding for “short-term treatments” was “wonderful.”
“The first step in recovery is just stopping the use of drugs, and being abstinent initially and getting healthy,” Warlow said. “Any kind of measure to support services and resources for that is the number one priority.”
However, Warlow added that in the long term, it was “important” that the state and the federal government targeted “our brains’ hyper reactivity to drug-associated cues in our environment” by researching treatments which may “dampen drug cravings.”
“Anything that targets [cues] would really be effective in dampening our craving that can come on any time after being abstinent,” Warlow said.
Neuroscience professor and director of the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience laboratory Tom Wager agreed that maintaining funding for treatment centers and other resources is “really important,” but added that research into the science of pain and opioids could “help us to understand” how to prevent drug addiction.
“Another part of it is just understanding — the science of pain and of usage, and the science of drug addiction has taught us things that we didn't know before,” Wager said.
Wager said that opioid drugs were “overprescribed,” and noted that taking opioids over “a long time” posed risks.
“Yeah, some people need them, but a lot of people don't know that it can be a trap,” Wager said.
Thomas Hohmann ’26, who serves as the executive director of Dartmouth Emergency Medical Services, a student-run emergency medical services agency, said that the group is “always striving” to “increase awareness” of the opioid overdose epidemic. He noted that Dartmouth EMS offers “regular trainings” on using Narcan, which is a nasal spray containing naloxone.
“During the spring before Green Key, we offer safety trainings for Greek houses in which we cover when and how to administer Narcan,” Hohmann said. “It’s truly a life-saving drug.”
Warlow said that building “reliable” and “stable” infrastructure around drug rehabilitation was “incredibly important.”
“The biggest challenge or hurdle initially is just finding help and looking at how you go online and find some treatment center that’s local and available,” Warlow said. “It’s important to invest in that because not only do you want community members to survive and get through this and get into treatment centers, [but] that also, it's that kind of prevention strategy [that] is really financially strategic and effective.”
Warlow added that drug addiction was not “a matter of willpower,” but “a matter of support and healthcare.”
“The key is giving people enough time, support and science to let that healing happen,” Warlow said.
