Opioid death rates remain at record levels while homicides decline

Fatal opioid overdoses in Cook County in 2023 nearly matched the record-breaking levels in 2022, but homicides fell by 14% since 2022, according to preliminary data released Tuesday by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The office said it has confirmed that at least 1,540 deaths were the result of opioid overdose and 90% of these involved fentanyl. The office is still waiting for the results of hundreds of toxicology tests, but its release predicted that more than 400 of those will be due to opioid toxicity, pushing the total to around 2,000 deaths, right around the 2,001 deaths in 2022.

Victims were male in 80% of opioid-caused deaths, the examiner’s office said. Among all opioid-caused deaths, 56% of victims were Black, almost 15% were Latino and 27% were white.

The most affected age group involved victims 50 to 59 years old, with 27% of opioid overdoses occurring within this age range. The youngest fatal opioid overdose victim was an 8-month-old boy from Chicago and the oldest was a 93-year-old woman from Arlington Heights, according to the release.

Meanwhile, officials in neighboring Kane County said they tracked at least 62 deaths due to opioid overdose with nine cases still pending, and McHenry County had 41 deaths with eight cases pending. Figures were not yet available in Lake and DuPage counties.

Regarding killings in Cook County, the medical examiner’s office reported 828 confirmed homicides in 2023, down 14% from the 962 in 2022 and down 24% from the county’s peak in 2021, when 1,094 homicides were recorded.

Guns were involved in 729 of the homicides, and 651 of the total homicides took place in the city of Chicago. The other county municipalities with the highest homicide rates were Harvey with 13, Chicago Heights and Dolton with 12 each and Riverdale with 11.

The report said 84% of homicides were male victims. Among all victims, 76% were Black and 18% were Latino.

Although homicide rates decreased in 2023, the report noted that 92 of the homicide victims were under the age of 18, and 15 of them were under the age of 10.

The office, which investigates homicides, suicides, accidents and other sudden or unexpected deaths, reported 7,738 cases fell under its jurisdiction this year, continuing to surpass pre-COVID levels, when the office saw roughly 6,200 cases a year. The office blamed opioid deaths for much of the increase in 2023.

The pandemic-era caseload peaked in 2020 at 16,047 deaths.