Why It Matters
Wisconsin’s largest city has recorded a significant public health turnaround, with Milwaukee County overdose fatalities dropping to their lowest point in a decade. The milestone reflects years of coordinated intervention work and carries implications for how cities across the country approach the ongoing opioid and synthetic drug crisis. With fentanyl contamination still widespread in the drug supply nationally, Milwaukee’s results are drawing attention as a potential model for urban overdose response programs.
What Happened
Milwaukee County recorded 383 fatal overdoses in 2025, the lowest annual total since 2016, according to the county’s overdose dashboard. The decline represents a dramatic reversal from the peak of the local crisis in 2022, when 674 people died from overdoses — a number driven largely by fentanyl contamination of the local drug supply, including cocaine, heroin, and prescription pills.
Central to the turnaround is the Milwaukee Overdose Response Initiative, known as MORI, a program launched in 2019 and operated out of a fire station on Fiebrantz Avenue. The initiative pairs fire department personnel with peer support specialists and a network of community partners to connect survivors of nonfatal overdoses with treatment, housing, and other services.
Lieutenant Jonathan Belott of the Milwaukee Fire Department has led MORI since its founding. Belott, who initially had little background in overdose response work, said the program’s success stems from community-wide collaboration rather than any single agency’s effort. “We don’t live in a silo,” Belott said. “We have so many of our different partners that we have come to rely on to get people the help that they need throughout this community.”
Belott works alongside firefighter and team supervisor Robert Rehberger and peer support specialist Amy Molinski, whose lived experience with addiction informs the initiative’s outreach approach. One visible component of the program is the distribution of “Hope Kits,” harm reduction packages provided to individuals at risk of overdose.
By the Numbers
- 383 — Fatal overdoses recorded in Milwaukee County in 2025, the lowest annual count since 2016
- 674 — Fatal overdoses recorded in Milwaukee County in 2022, the peak year of the local crisis
- 4,582 — Total overdose deaths in Milwaukee County between 2017 and 2025
- 2019 — Year MORI was established as a dedicated overdose response unit
- 43% — Approximate reduction in annual overdose fatalities between the 2022 peak and the 2025 figure
Zoom Out
Milwaukee’s progress comes as the United States continues to grapple with one of the most sustained drug mortality crises in its history. Nationwide, drug overdose deaths surpassed fatalities from homicide, car accidents, and suicide combined at the height of the fentanyl epidemic. The synthetic opioid, which is roughly 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, became a dominant driver of overdose deaths after it began appearing in the street drug supply in the mid-2010s.
Other cities and states have pursued similar community-based intervention strategies. Programs modeled on post-overdose outreach — in which trained teams follow up with survivors in the hours and days after a nonfatal event — have been implemented in cities including Columbus, Ohio, and Gloucester, Massachusetts. Public health researchers have identified peer support specialists, who share personal experience with addiction, as a particularly effective element in connecting individuals to care.
Federal funding for harm reduction programs, including naloxone distribution and syringe services, has expanded in recent years through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, though policy debates over funding levels continue in Congress.
What’s Next
MORI leaders have indicated the program will continue expanding its network of community partners to sustain the downward trend in overdose deaths. Ongoing priorities include outreach to underserved populations and continued distribution of harm reduction tools such as naloxone and Hope Kits.
Milwaukee County health officials are expected to continue monitoring overdose data through the county dashboard, which tracks fatalities in near real time. State and local officials have not yet announced specific legislative or budget actions tied to the 2025 figures, but the results are likely to factor into future discussions around Wisconsin’s public health funding priorities.