Opioid-related overdose deaths decreased last year in Utah by almost 20 percent, according to data released Monday by state agencies.
Prescription opioids were behind the bulk of fatalities in 2017, killing 237 of the 360 Utahns who died from either opioid painkillers or heroin. As a result, much of the state’s intervention has focused on the prescribing behavior of doctors.
Now state officials will be tracking that behavior more closely with new software with real-time monitoring, designed to show health and law enforcement officials where opioid deaths are "clustering," said Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, who announced the 2017 figures at a news conference Monday.