New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
New Bedford and Fall River have a lot in common; a shared manufacturing history and now a heroin epidemic that seems to be growing out of control.
Fall River and New Bedford saw large increases in drug overdoses from 2015 to 2016. New Bedford had 679 drug overdoses, 42 of them fatal in 2016 compared to 389 overdoses, 25 of them fatal in 2015.
Fall River seemed to be the hardest hit city in the south coast with 934 drug overdoses in 2016 compared to 643 in 2015. Even though Fall River has 6,000 less residents per the 2010 census, the city saw 38% more overdoses than New Bedford. That’s also more than double the 2012 overdose total of 425.
