The Metro: What’s behind Dearborn’s drastic drop in fatal overdoses?

, , April 23, 2025

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Dearborn Director of Public Health Ali Abazeed (right) speaks about the installation of a NARCAN vending machine in the lobby of the city's transit center, Nov. 16, 2022.

Dearborn Director of Public Health Ali Abazeed (right) speaks about the installation of a NARCAN vending machine in the lobby of the city's transit center, Nov. 16, 2022.

Overdose deaths have been falling nationally, statewide and now locally. 

Last year, at the national level, these kinds of deaths dropped for the first time in four years. And in Dearborn in 2024, overdose incidents dropped by 34% and overdose deaths dropped by 43%.

While the numbers are trending down, they’re still extremely high over the last two decades.

Ali Abazeed, founding director of public health and chief public health officer for the city of Dearborn, joined The Metro on Wednesday to discuss the city’s efforts to lower overdoses. 

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

More stories from The Metro on Wednesday, April 23:

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.

WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.

Donate today »

More stories from The Metro

Authors

  • Sam Corey is a producer for 101.9 WDET, which includes finding and preparing interesting stories for the daily news, arts and culture program, The Metro. Sam joined WDET after a year and a half at The Union, a small newspaper in California, and stints at a variety of local Michigan outlets, including WUOM and the Metro Times. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago.

    View all posts

  • Robyn Vincent
    Robyn Vincent is the co-host of The Metro on WDET. She is an award-winning journalist, a lifelong listener of WDET, and a graduate of Wayne State University, where she studied journalism. Before returning home to Detroit, she was a reporter, producer, editor, and executive producer for NPR stations in the Mountain West, including her favorite Western station, KUNC. She received a national fellowship from Investigative Reporters and Editors for her investigative work that probed the unchecked power of sheriffs in Colorado. She was also the editor-in-chief of an alternative weekly newspaper in Wyoming, leading the paper to win its first national award for a series she directed tracing one reporter’s experience living and working with Syrian refugees.

    View all posts

  • The Metro

    View all posts

Tags: , , , , ,