July is typically Maricopa County's deadliest month for drug overdoses

July is typically the deadliest month in Maricopa County when it comes to drug overdoses — the Valley’s extreme summer heat plays a role.

The seasonal difference in Maricopa County is massive — the number of overdose fatalities in July was more than twice as high as it was in January from 2022 to 2024, Maricopa County Department of Public Health data shows.

And the county saw its highest fatal overdose rate on record during its hottest-ever month on record, in July 2023.

Maricopa County Department of Public Health

Ariella Dale, chief science officer with the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, said stimulants like methamphetamine are especially dangerous in summer.

“They make us more dehydrated, it’s harder to regulate your temperature, it increases your heart rate. So it intensifies the effects that we already think about when thinking about heat-related illnesses and death,” Dale said.

Substance use factored into 55% of the county’s heat-related deaths last year. Stimulants were the substance to blame in eight out of 10 of those cases.

“We’re wanting to ensure that the public understands and that folks who use these substances understand the risks that are involved when there is heat,” Dale said.

Dale said her department has been working with community partners, including street outreach teams and heat relief centers, to try to raise awareness of these dangers.

“We’re just trying to share with our public to consider, when they’re using these substances, that they have naloxone on-hand to prevent any kind of fentanyl or opioid-overdose incidents, and for methamphetamine that they understand they need to be thinking about the weather that’s occurring,” Dale said.