Seven people have died from suspected drug overdoses in the past 48 hours in Jefferson County as drug deaths continue to soar countywide.

The Jefferson County Coroner/Medical Examiner Office reports that 416 people fatally overdosed in 2022, and suspect 32 others did as well, pending toxicology confirmation.

The numbers, with just a few exceptions, have steadily increased since 2014 and Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said there’s no relief in sight.

“We’re breaking records every single year and it just isn’t slowing down,’’ Yates said.

He said not only have the deaths continued to climb, but said they are seeing what he called an alarming shift in demographics.

For years, the demographic of the 40 to 49-year-old white male had been the group with the highest number of overdose deaths.

“For the first time in our history, Black males are now the leading demographic for drug fatalities in Jefferson County,’’ Yates said. “The Black community, male and female, has seen staggering percentage increases since 2019.”

Each day, the coroner’s office sends out to the media the list of overnight homicides, traffic deaths, or the occasional fatal industrial accident.

Yates is now adding the drug overdose numbers to that daily report.

It typically takes four to six weeks to complete a suspected drug fatality investigation so there is somewhat of a lag in being able to confirm a drug death.

“We’ve seen homicides increase nationally, we’ve dealt with COVID the past few years, racial strife in the communities and all these things were first and foremost in the media and what our citizens were interested in,’’ Yates said.

“But on our end, while those events caused us increase work, the overdoses continued in the background and steadily increased,’’ he said.

“They never go away, and I don’t see an end to it without some sort of intervention from other groups in our community to treat and work with those drug addicts before they become a case of ours.”

The lowest number of drug deaths in recent memory was 67 in 2001.

Here is a look at the numbers for the past decade:

• 2012, 137
• 2013, 160
• 2014, 259
• 2015, 224
• 2016, 251
• 2017, 269
• 2018, 228
• 2019, 236
• 2020, 302
• 2021, 401

“For the past few years, drug deaths have been the largest category of deaths we investigate and we’re just seeing it across the whole community now,’’ Yates said.

“It seems to be such a prevalent issue, above and beyond traffic fatalities and homicides.”

There were 194 homicides across Jefferson County in 2022, with 144 of those taking place inside Birmingham’s city limits. There were 115 confirmed traffic deaths countywide last year.

“A lot of the deaths we investigate are sudden and traumatic, be it from homicide or traffic fatality, but we also see overdose as trauma – injury to the body,’’ Yates said.

“The story we get about our decedents from family and friends talks of a struggle they had for numerous different reasons for multiple years,’’ he said. “It’s just an incredible tragedy.”

The Jefferson County Coroner/Medical Examiner Office has now received funding approval from the County Commission in this current budget year to try to hire an additional forensic pathologist to help with the case load.

That increase has been because of primarily drug overdoses, Yates said.

“The National Association of Medical Examiners has a limit on how many cases a pathologist can do each year and we’re creeping up to those limits,’’ he said, “and that’s why we’re having to hopefully fill a new position.”

Drug fatalities have shifted over the past years from prescription opioids, to heroin, to fentanyl, and now to fentanyl being mixed into all illicit substances in the communities, Yates said.

He said that is fueling the shift in the demographics of who is dying.

“The problem is the fentanyl – it’s gotten into everything,’’ he said. “Because it’s gotten into all illicit drugs, including pills, it’s crossing into new communities, communities that did not see a high use of opioids.”

“It’s getting into the cocaine products and causing a significant increase in deaths in the Black community because the cocaine product is what we typically saw in the Black community,’’ he said.

“It’s not only causing death, it’s causing addiction in that community,’’ he said. “In my eyes, you’ve introduced a new medical condition into a community.”

Yates said his office has been working with the Jefferson County Health Department and drug prevention and drug treatment agencies to educate the Black community about the dangers.

“They believe at first they were not aware,’’ he said. “Then we started hearing stories of witnesses, friends, family, telling us the decedent said, ‘I’m going to go purchase that cocaine that has the fentanyl in it.’’’

“So, the message is getting out, but in some situations, it’s too late,’’ he said. “You don’t know what you’re getting. It’s very risky to use.”