Dr. Marcy Flanagan, Deputy Maricopa County Manager/Fmr. Department of Public Health Director, left, and Jeanene Fowler, Interim Director, Maricopa County Dept. of Public Health | Arizona Public Health Association
Dr. Marcy Flanagan, Deputy Maricopa County Manager/Fmr. Department of Public Health Director, left, and Jeanene Fowler, Interim Director, Maricopa County Dept. of Public Health | Arizona Public Health Association
Nearly seven in ten "heat related" deaths reported by Maricopa County's Department of Public Health (DPH) in 2023 involved drugs and/or alcohol.
That's according to a PHX Reporter analysis of data detailing specifics of deaths attributed to high temperatures in Maricopa County, released by DPH.
The analysis showed that, of 645 Maricopa County deaths blamed on excessive heat, 419 were drug and/or alcohol related, and 53% of those deaths were of confirmed drug users.
Maricopa County reported that 46 percent of the drug users who died from excessive heat were users of fentanyl, a highly-lethal drug that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
These local fentanyl deaths occurred as seizures of the drug at the U.S.-Mexico border increased by 480% from fiscal year 2020 to 2023, reported the National Immigration Forum.
More than 115 million pills containing illicit fentanyl were seized in 2023, reported NIDA.
“This year, fentanyl is coming in like crazy,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Nogales Port Director Michael Humphries told NPR in August 2023. “It's going throughout the U.S., everywhere we hear about addiction and overdose problems.”
Fentanyl was also found in the blood of George Floyd at the time of his death, according to handwritten notes by Dr. Andrew Baker, the Medical Examiner in Hennepin County, Minnn. Baker said Floyd had 11 ng/ML of fentanyl in his blood, told investigators that “deaths have been certified with levels of 3," reported KARE 11 News.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s “One Pill Can Kill” campaign says that only 2 mg of fentanyl equates to a potentially deadly dose.
The 53% of deaths involving drug and/or alcohol use in Maricopa County is a sharp increase from 2015, when only 37% of heat-related deaths involved these substances.
DPH’s “2023 Heat Related Deaths Report,” also showed an increase in the amount of homeless people dying from “heat related” issues.
Homeless people accounted for 45% of heat-related deaths in 2023, a sharp increase from 2015 when homeless accounted for only 10% of deaths.
Those deaths came at the same time the county saw a 49% increase in homelessness, according to the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG).
There were 9,333 homeless households in the county in March 2024, reported MAG, up from 6,282 homeless households in March 2023.
Maricopa County also reported that 46% of heat-related deaths were among those who already had existing cardiopulmonary disease.
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Who actually died of “heat-related” causes in Maricopa County 2023?
Source: Maricopa County Department of Public Health
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