{"id":48,"date":"2016-04-21T16:35:32","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T16:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/medical-examiner\/?page_id=48"},"modified":"2026-02-13T15:21:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:21:56","slug":"forensic-epidemiology","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/medical-examiner\/forensic-epidemiology\/","title":{"rendered":"Forensic Epidemiology"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"Content_Secondary medexam_width_fix\">\n<div class=\"Highlight_Box_Center_Grey\">\n<p><strong>Fatal Drug Overdose Trends<\/strong> &#8211; updated numbers as of <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">January 2026<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Statewide Report: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/Quarterly-Drug-Death-Report-FINAL-Q3-2025-1.pdf\">Quarterly Drug Death Report, Q3 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Fatal Overdose Tables &#8211; Deaths by locality and year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/All-Drug-Deaths-Any-Substance-1.xlsx\">All Drug Deaths, Any Substance<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/Benzodiazepines-1.xlsx\">Benzodiazepines<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/Cocaine.xlsx\">Cocaine<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/Fentanyl.xlsx\">Fentanyl<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/Heroin.xlsx\">Heroin<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/Meth.xlsx\">Methamphetamine<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/Opioids-All.xlsx\">Opioids (All)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/Prescription-Opioids.xlsx\">Prescription Opioids<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nThe next Fatal Drug Overdose Quarterly Report and associated Excel spreadsheets will be available <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">April 2026.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner\u2019s (OCME) data is intended to be <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">utilized<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> by public health and public safety agencies for internal analysis, state policy makers, national accreditation agencies and OCME staff.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">As of May 12, 2025, for any public facing release of data, the Virginia Department of Health<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> (VDH) would like for you to use the <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">VDH Drug Overdose Deaths<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> dashboard when reporting drug overdose death data to public audiences. OCME\u2019s data is still available <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">but may vary from the numbers and rates in the dashboard because different populations are included in the data. Click <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/drug-overdose-data\/overdose-deaths\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">here<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> for more information pertaining this <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">change <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">in <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">utilization<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> of the Drug Overdose Deaths dashboard.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"RowWithColumns_No_Float\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fatal Drug Overdose Trends &#8211; updated numbers as of January 2026 Statewide Report: Quarterly Drug Death Report, Q3 2025 Fatal Overdose Tables &#8211; Deaths by locality and year: All Drug Deaths, Any Substance Benzodiazepines Cocaine Fentanyl Heroin Methamphetamine Opioids (All) Prescription Opioids The next Fatal Drug Overdose Quarterly Report and associated Excel spreadsheets will be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Forensic Epidemiology - Medical Examiner<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/medical-examiner\/forensic-epidemiology\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forensic Epidemiology - Medical Examiner\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fatal Drug Overdose Trends &#8211; updated numbers as of January 2026 Statewide Report: Quarterly Drug Death Report, Q3 2025 Fatal Overdose Tables &#8211; Deaths by locality and year: All Drug Deaths, Any Substance Benzodiazepines Cocaine Fentanyl Heroin Methamphetamine Opioids (All) Prescription Opioids The next Fatal Drug Overdose Quarterly Report and associated Excel spreadsheets will be [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/medical-examiner\/forensic-epidemiology\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medical Examiner\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-13T15:21:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/medical-examiner\\\/forensic-epidemiology\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/medical-examiner\\\/forensic-epidemiology\\\/\",\"name\":\"Forensic Epidemiology - Medical Examiner\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/medical-examiner\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-21T16:35:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-13T15:21:56+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/medical-examiner\\\/forensic-epidemiology\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/medical-examiner\\\/forensic-epidemiology\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/medical-examiner\\\/forensic-epidemiology\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/medical-examiner\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Forensic Epidemiology\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/medical-examiner\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/medical-examiner\\\/\",\"name\":\"Medical Examiner\",\"description\":\"To promote and protect the health of all Virginians\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/medical-examiner\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Forensic Epidemiology - Medical Examiner","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/medical-examiner\/forensic-epidemiology\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Forensic Epidemiology - Medical Examiner","og_description":"Fatal Drug Overdose Trends &#8211; 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