Drug Dashboard Launched to Help BCA Fight Opioid Epidemic

(KNSI) — The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has launched a new dashboard to help public safety and health professionals respond to drug-related overdoses, deaths, and crimes in Minnesota.

While the dashboard is designed to be used by public safety and health professionals, it is available to everyone.

The Minnesota Drug Crimes and Overdose Dashboard is a tool for trend analysis that aims to help people across the prevent tragedies like overdose deaths. Authorities say while the opioid epidemic is not new, they are finding new ways, such as the dashboard, to address the complex law enforcement and public health challenges caused by illegal drug use.

“We hope that making information about drug arrests, overdoses and deaths available in a single location will help law enforcement, medical service providers and others as they work to understand illicit drug use and its impact on our communities,” BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said.

With a few clicks on the interactive graphics, overdoses can be narrowed down by month, crime rates for counties will also be posted, as will the percentage of drug-related deaths caused by opioids compared to methamphetamine.

A YouTube video showing how to use the dashboard can be found here.

According to the dashboard, overdoses in the first half of 2023, where Naloxone was administered, well outpaced the prior three years, including a 9.8% jump over 2022.

Synthetic opioids like fentanyl contributed to the deaths of 985 people in 2022. The St. Cloud Police Department issued a dire warning about the dangers of fentanyl after an unprecedented number of overdose deaths last year. Police said as of December 29th, 2022, there had been 19 overdose deaths, and 16 involved fentanyl. One of them was a two-year-old who accidentally ingested the drug.

Fentanyl is a powerful painkiller that is 100 times stronger than morphine and is often intentionally or unintentionally mixed with other drugs. Sometimes, people don’t even know they’re taking it, and that’s why police say it is extremely dangerous.

The BCA developed the Minnesota Drug Crimes and Overdose Dashboard in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Health and the Emergency Medical Services Regulatory Board, both of which contribute data.

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