Pace of fatal heroin, OxyContin overdoses slows

BOSTON—The pace of fatal heroin and OxyContin overdoses has dramatically slowed in Massachusetts.

Health officials said 645 people died of opiate overdoses in 2007. The 3 percent rise from the previous year was a much smaller jump than in 2006 and 2005, when the state saw 19 percent and 13 percent increases.

Health officials credit the slowing rate of overdoses in part to the millions of dollars the state has spent to expand drug treatment and prevention programs.

They also said they are encouraged by the wider use of a lifesaving overdose prevention drug known as Narcan.

The drug is credited with reversing more than 170 overdoses since the state began distributing the nasal spray in January to drug treatment staff and the family and friends of people at risk of overdosing.