Non-fatal overdoses in 2025 are on track to exceed last year’s emergency opioid totals in Arizona.
Hez Naylor is a nurse practitioner and faculty chair at Creighton University’s College of Nursing. She also worked in the pain management space for 13 years.
"First of all, we're seeing in the community that there is a lot of fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills showing up everywhere," she says.
Fentanyl, she says, is one of the most common drugs involved in overdose cases.
"Another contributing factor is that there's been a long-term shift in medical prescribing practices for opioids and benzodiazepines," Naylor
That means a concerted effort to reduce opioid prescribing. The unintended consequence is people seeking out those medications, including Xanax, on the street. Naylor says while people are overdosing, they’re also surviving.
"And that I think is likely due to Naloxone or Narcan, which is the opioid antidote being widely available across Arizona," Naylor said.
She says more than 4,000 Narcan prescriptions are filled every month in Arizona. That’s in addition to free Narcan programs and over the counter versions.
"So it is deeply concerning that those overdoses are rising. That's always bad news when we have overdoses. But the fact that more of them aren't fatal tells us that some of those prevention efforts are saving lives, which is really good news," Naylor said.
