CT senator counts ‘human cost of wrong action,’ blames governor for lost lives

Hartford Courant – Tuesday, July 15, 2025
By Livi Stanford

State Sen. Saud Anwar has been keeping track of the number of lives lost to overdoses in Connecticut — what he calls “the human cost of wrong action.”

He’s laying responsibility for the deaths at the feet of Gov. Ned Lamont, who, he said, pushed lawmakers to remove from a bill a provision to establish overdose prevention centers throughout the state.

“On May 29th, 2025, Overdose Prevention Center part was removed from SB 7, because of a veto threat by Governor Ned Lamont. Since that sad moment, there have been 789 overdoses. 83 precious lives lost. EACH DEATH WAS PREVENTABLE,” Anwar wrote on his Facebook page on June 24. “This was not just a wrong policy decision made by the Governor, it has consequences. It’s pain. It’s people. Its families shattered. Community will be watching the direct impact of policy decisions, day by day. The question is no longer if people will die without overdose prevention — the question is HOW MANY MORE? We will keep counting.”

Anwar, a medical doctor and co-chairman of the General Assembly’s Public Health Committee, said the governor’s decision has resulted in needless deaths.

“I am disappointed that humans are not being treated in a fair manner because of various factors that are unacceptable to me,” the senator told the Courant. “It is Black and Brown people who are dying and every single death is preventable. I have difficulty accepting that our governor is allowing those deaths to happen when we have shown him the data that they are preventable.”

Anwar said that overdose prevention centers have been recognized by the entire prevention science community as an effective way of reducing overdose deaths.

Since May 29, there have been more than 100 opioid overdose deaths, he said.

“They could have been with their family members,” he said.

Anwar is one of several Democrats to criticize the governor, penning an op-ed calling for Lamont to give up his seat.

For more than a year, liberal Democrats have been grumbling about the Democratic governor regarding his opposition to tax hikes on the state’s richest residents and blocking more wide-scale loosening of the state’s fiscal guardrails to allow more spending for progressive priorities. His vetoes of a bill to encourage affordable housing in Connecticut and to extend unemployment benefits to striking workers have also prompted criticism from fellow Democrats.

Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, on Monday kicked off his gubernatorial campaign to challenge Lamont.

What happened to SB 7

The Senate on May 22 passed SB 7 in a 25-10 vote, paving the way for the state to introduce a pilot program supporting overdose prevention centers.

The pilot program would have developed four centers in different municipalities across the state in 2026, according to Senate Democrats.

Connecticut Senate Democrats reported in a release that overdose prevention centers support those with substance use disorder and help to reduce overdose deaths and connect individuals with resources that can aid them.

Families of those who have died from overdoses, those in recovery from substance use disorder and families of struggling individuals supported the legislation, according to Senate Democrats.

Asked at a press briefing on May 28 if the governor is committed to vetoing SB 7 if it comes to his desk with a safe injection site measure, Lamont said that he had not committed to anything on that.

“I want to get people off the drugs and we have made a big effort there and are having some success,” he said. “There are less fentanyl deaths than two or three years ago. There is some progress. I have not made a call on that yet.”

Lamont said he had some “worry about the perception of safe injection sites in our major municipalities but I have not made a call on that yet.”

A day later, the language was stripped from the bill, according to Anwar.

The governor’s office did not answer specific questions from the Courant about why the language establishing the prevention centers was removed from SB 7 and what the governor’s response was to Anwar’s criticism that such a decision was costing lives. The governor’s office instead referred to Lamont’s May 28 press briefing and a press release on a dramatic decline in overdose deaths in the state.

Are overdoses decreasing in the state?

There has been a 26% decline in overdose deaths in 2024, according to the governor’s office.

Brittany Schaefer, public information officer for the state Department of Public Health, said since January there have been 389 unintentional and undetermined intent drug overdose deaths. Of those, 310 are opioid related.

“Between September 2024 and April 2025 drug overdose deaths have generally trended slightly upward approximately 6-7%, increasing from an average of 69.5 overdose deaths per month to 74.25 overdose deaths per month,” Schaefer said. “While there have been more drug overdose deaths in the first four months of 2025 (297) than the last four months of 2024 (278), counts for Jan-April 2025 are still well below the counts for Jan-April 2024 (380).”

Schaefer added that the department would not classify the “overdose deaths as ‘spiking’ at this point.”

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said a few weeks ago there was a small spike in overdose deaths in the city.

But he said “there was no trend we could identify,” adding that the numbers are coming down overall.

In 2022, New Haven had 128 overdose deaths, with that number dropping to 116 in 2023 and 72 in 2024, he said.

He said the decline in deaths is related to the city helping to connect people with services.

Anwar cited a discrepancy in the state’s overdose numbers for 2024 in which DPH estimated that 1,118 people died from overdose deaths earlier this year.

He cited a press release from the governor’s office in June which showed that 990 individuals died from overdose deaths, questioning what happened to the 128 deaths.

Schaefer said that 1,118 was a previously projected number of all drug overdose deaths and that counts for 2024 have since been finalized resulting in 990 deaths.

“I find it interesting that we are changing the projections of the past,” Anwar said.

Overdose prevention centers

There are currently three overdose prevention centers — also called supervised consumption rooms or safe injection sites — in the country: two in New York City and one in Rhode Island.

Brandon Marshall, professor of epidemiology at Brown University, said researchers from the Brown University School of Public Health are working in conjunction with colleagues at the NYU Lagone Health to conduct a “rigorous multifaceted evaluation of the overdose prevention centers.”

He said overdose prevention centers have been around since the 1980s in Switzerland, Canada and other countries.

“They are highly effective in other countries in communities where there is a very high level of overdose risk,” he said. ”They are most effective as part of a comprehensive response to an overdose crisis which includes prevention treatment and recovery efforts.”

Robert Heimer, professor of epidemiology and pharmacology at Yale University, said overdose prevention centers save lives in the short run.

He added that the controversy surrounding the centers is political not scientific.

He said opioids kill 1,000 people a year and contribute to crime and gang violence.

“It contributes to all manner of ill health,” he said, referring to shorter life expectancies.

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