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Complete Health Indicator Report of Drug Overdose Deaths

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Why Is This Important?

New Mexico's drug overdose death rate has been one of the highest in the nation for most of the last two decades. New Mexico's death rate has more than tripled since 1990. Deaths due to illicit drugs have remained steady during the past decade, particularly deaths due to methamphetamine and fentanyl have increased dramatically. In addition to the high death rates, drug abuse is one of the most costly health problems in the U. S. In 2007, it was estimated that prescription opioid abuse, dependence, and misuse cost New Mexico $890 million. ^1^ [[br]][[br]] ---- {{class .SmallerFont # Based on a national methodology derived by Birnbaum et al. (2011). "Societal costs of opioid abuse, dependence, and misuse in the United States." Pain Medicine, 12(4):657-667. }}

Definition

Drug overdose death is defined as the number of deaths caused by drug overdose per 100,000 population, age-adjusted. Drug overdose deaths are those in which drug overdose is the primary cause, whether unintentional or intentional. Includes ICD-10 codes X40-X44, X60-X64, X85, and Y10-Y14 for underlying cause of death.

How Are We Doing?

Drug use can result in overdose death and is also associated with other societal problems including crime, violence, homelessness, loss of productivity and spread of blood-borne disease such as HIV and hepatitis. Unintentional drug overdose is the largest subset of total drug overdose death, accounting for 80-85% of drug overdose deaths in New Mexico. The other substantial cause of drug overdose death is suicide, or intentional self-poisoning, which accounts for 10-15% of all total drug overdose death in New Mexico. Poisoning has been the leading cause of unintentional injury in New Mexico since 2007, surpassing motor vehicle crash deaths, largely as a result of increased unintentional drug overdose deaths associated with prescription drug use. During 2010-2014, 53% of drug overdose deaths were caused by prescription drugs, while 33% were caused by illicit drugs, and 14% involved both types. Medical examiner data indicate that the most common drugs causing unintentional overdose death for the period were prescription opioids (e.g., methadone, oxycodone, morphine 48%), heroin (34%), tranquilizers/muscle relaxants (23%), cocaine (17%), methamphetamine (16%) and antidepressants (12%) (not mutually exclusive). In New Mexico and nationally, overdose death from prescription opioids has become an issue of enormous concern. Interventions are currently being formulated, assessed and implemented in New Mexico and in communities across the country, and may be contributing to decreases in death in the most recent data available. Hispanic men had the highest total drug overdose death rate during 2010-2014. The rates of total drug overdose death and unintentional drug overdose death among men were roughly 1.5 times that of women. Among women, drug overdose death from prescription drugs was more common than from illicit drugs across the age range. Illicit drugs were the predominant drug type causing death among males across the age range, and the rates were highest among males aged 25-54 years.

Other Objectives

Substance Abuse Epidemiology Report Indicator, New Mexico Community Health Status Indicator (CHSI)

In 2023, New Mexico had the seventh highest total drug overdose death rate in the nation, including DC (most recent data available).

Data Sources

  • New Mexico Death Data: Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS), Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health.
    (https://www.nmhealth.org/about/erd/bvrhs/vrp/)
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC WONDER Online Database
    (http://wonder.cdc.gov)
  • New Mexico Population Estimates: University of New Mexico, Geospatial and Population Studies (GPS) Program.
    (http://gps.unm.edu/)

How the Measure is Calculated

  • Numerator:

    Number of drug overdose deaths in New Mexico

  • Denominator:

    New Mexico Population

Deaths due to Drug Overdose by County, New Mexico, 2019-2023

Rio Arriba County had the highest total drug overdose death rate (83.6 deaths per 100,000) among all New Mexico counties during 2015-2019. However, the problem of drug overdose is by no means limited to Rio Arriba County. Bernalillo County had the largest number of drug overdose deaths and many New Mexico counties had total drug overdose death rates more than twice the U.S. rate.
  • #This count or rate is statistically unstable (RSE >0.30), and may fluctuate widely across time periods due to random variation (chance). Please use caution in interpreting this value, or combine years, areas, or age groups to increase the population size.
  • ##The estimate has a relative standard error greater than 50% and does not meet standards for reliability. A count or rate such as this should not be used to inform decisions. Try combining years, areas, or age groups to increase the population size.

Data Sources

  • New Mexico Death Data: Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS), Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health.
    (https://www.nmhealth.org/about/erd/bvrhs/vrp/)
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC WONDER Online Database
    (http://wonder.cdc.gov)
  • New Mexico Population Estimates: University of New Mexico, Geospatial and Population Studies (GPS) Program.
    (http://gps.unm.edu/)

How the Measure is Calculated

  • Numerator:

    Number of drug overdose deaths in New Mexico

  • Denominator:

    New Mexico Population

Data Sources

  • New Mexico Death Data: Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS), Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health.
    (https://www.nmhealth.org/about/erd/bvrhs/vrp/)
  • New Mexico Population Estimates: University of New Mexico, Geospatial and Population Studies (GPS) Program.
    (http://gps.unm.edu/)

How the Measure is Calculated

  • Numerator:

    Number of drug overdose deaths in New Mexico

  • Denominator:

    New Mexico Population

Deaths due to Drug Overdose by U.S. States, 2023

Data Source

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC WONDER Online Database
(http://wonder.cdc.gov)

How the Measure is Calculated

  • Numerator:

    Number of drug overdose deaths in New Mexico

  • Denominator:

    New Mexico Population

  • Death Certificate Data

    Death certificate information is submitted electronically by funeral directors, who obtain demographic information from an informant, a close family member of the decedent. The NMDOH Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS) does annual trainings for funeral directors and local registrars and the death certificate information goes through extensive scrutiny for completeness and consistency. The cause of death is certified by the decedent's physician or the physician that attended the death. Accidental and suspicious deaths are certified by the Office of the Medical Investigator. When death certificates are received the cause of death literals are keyed into software locally by the BVRHS, then shipped to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) where they are machine coded into ICD-10 cause-of-death codes. NCHS returns the ICD-10 codes to BVRHS where the death records are updated.

  • New Mexico Population Estimates

    {{class RedText NOTE: On January 16, 2025, the NM-IBIS and NMTracking POPULATION ESTIMATES FOR YEARS **2010 THROUGH 2023** WERE REPLACED. Data from the 2020 decennial census were used to update the estimates. Rates calculated using the NM-IBIS and NMTracking web-based queries are affected. Any rates that use population denominators that were calculated after January 16, 2025 will be different from those calculated prior to that date. We apologize for the inconvenience.}} All population estimates apply to July 1 of the selected year. These estimates are considered the most accurate estimates for the state of New Mexico and should match those found on the University of New Mexico [https://gps.unm.edu/pop/population-estimates.html Geospatial and Population Studies website]. Estimates include decimal fractions. Census tract population estimates were summed to produce County estimates. Population estimate totals may vary slightly due to rounding.

Health Topic Pages Related to: Drug Overdose Deaths

Community Health Resources and Links





Medical literature can be queried at the PubMed website.

Indicator Data Last Updated On 09/17/2025, Published on 09/17/2025
Substance Use Epidemiology, Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health, 1190 S. Saint Francis Drive, Room N-1103, Santa Fe, NM, 87502. Contact Annaliese Mayette, Alcohol Epidemiologist, by telephone at (505) 476-1788 or email to Annaliese.Mayette@state.nm.us.