New Hampshire: The Opioid Crisis Gets Worse

AUDIO – NO END IN SIGHT? –

Aug. 9, 2023 – These numbers represent, as you know, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, friends, brothers, sisters,” he said. “And these numbers have names and faces.” After a few years of what seemed like progress, overdose deaths are again rising across New Hampshire. Discussions of the state’s drug crisis often focus on cities, but rural areas have also been hit hard. Last year in Coos County, people died at twice the rate that they did in New Hampshire as a whole.

And people here say they face outsized challenges as they try to respond to this crisis. While accessing treatment and finding support in recovery can be difficult across New Hampshire, that’s made even harder by this region’s limited services and scarce financial resources. “We only have one treatment center in the entire North Country,” said Jennifer Goulet, the recovery support manager for the Littleton-based North Country Health Consortium. “That’s not enough capacity.”