Fentanyl continues to be the leading substance involved in overdose deaths.
Note: DPH added xylazine, a non-opioid tranquilizer, to the 2022 report for the first time. Xylazine was increasingly found in overdose deaths starting in 2020-2021. Cocaine is a non-opioid stimulant that is increasingly mixed with fentanyl and found in a greater number of overdose deaths in Massachusetts. As such, xylazine and cocaine are included here alongside the three opioids most commonly involved in overdose deaths.