HOPE IS IN THE AIR –
Nov. 24, 2025 – Drug deaths in New Hampshire fell 33.4% from 2023 to 2024, according to data from the New Hampshire Drug Monitoring Initiative. That’s the largest single-year decrease in over a decade. It also represents significant progress from the peak of the opioid epidemic, in which New Hampshire was among the hardest-hit states. Dr. Abby L’Heureux and Annette Escalante are substance use disorder treatment specialists at Elliot Hospital’s Center for Recovery Management in Manchester. L’Heureux directly treats patients who come into their Manchester facility, and Escalante directs Elliot’s substance use disorder program and serves on the Governor’s Committee on Addiction Treatment and Prevention.
The Bulletin sat down with L’Heureux and Escalante to discuss what the state and the broader U.S. addiction treatment community is doing right, what it needs to continue doing, and what, if anything, might threaten that progress. The following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
L’Heureux: We know from the evidence that there are things that work.
There are three FDA-approved medications for opioid use disorder: methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone. Those are the only treatments for opioid use disorder proven to reduce overdose mortality. So getting people access to those is incredibly important, and most likely is contributing to the decrease in mortality that we’ve seen in New Hampshire.
