19 overdoses in 4 days across New Haven have local and state health officials scrambling to find answers

New Haven Register – Wednesday, June 4, 2025
By Steven Goode

NEW HAVEN—City and state officials are investigating a spike in overdoses in New Haven between Friday and Tuesday morning.

During that time span the city saw 19 overdoses, including one fatality, according to Becky Rubenstein, a public educator with the New Haven Department of Public Health.

“Due to this increase, we activated a group of local and state public health and harm-reduction partners, first responder and public safety partners to share what we know, request information and work as a group to understand and address this concerning trend,” Rubenstein said Wednesday.

The overdoses were not confined to one neighborhood or area. According to a map provided by the health department they occurred in the Amity, Annex, Beaver Hills, Downtown, Dwight, Edgewood, Fair Haven, Fair Haven Heights, Hill, Long Wharf, Quinnipiac Meadows and West River neighborhoods.

A higher concentration of overdoses were in the Beaver Hills, Downtown, Dwight, Edgewood, Hill , Long Wharf and West River neighborhoods.

Rubenstein said that preliminary data suggests that opioids and stimulants were involved, although test results are still pending.

“Our local, state and federal harm reduction and law enforcement partners are on the ground testing substances and investigating to better understand what is currently in the drug supply and what may have led to this increase,” she said.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Health said the agency is working closely with New Haven officials.who are doing extensive community outreach in at-risk neighborhoods.

Mobile vans from Yale’s Syringe Services Program and the CT Harm Reduction Alliance are also doing drug checking, handing out harm reduction materials, drug testing strips, and notifying the drug using communities of harm reduction services, the spokeswoman said.

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