Drug-related deaths decreased by 21 from 2023 to 2024 and seem to be further decreasing in 2025, according to the Butler County coroner.

Coroner William Young III’s 2024 report includes 44 drug-related deaths in 2024 compared with 65 in 2023. Young and chief detective Tim Fennell said the number of drug-related deaths seems to be decreasing further in 2025, but official numbers won’t be available until 2026.

“For a while, I thought the coroner wasn’t sending me anything and forgot,” Fennell said, surprised about the decreased number.

He said fentanyl and fentanyl mixtures continue to cause the majority of drug-related deaths in the county. Fennell said the number of deaths caused by fentanyl mixed with xylazine, a veterinary sedative, has also decreased.

“Fentanyl is still the most prominent in the fatals, often mixed with methamphetamine,” Fennell said.

Fennell said his detectives conducted multiple joint investigations in 2024 alongside Pennsylvania State Police, the Office of the Attorney General and Drug Enforcement Administration that may have contributed to the decrease.

He added the county has also seen one death in 2025 associated with medetomidine, another veterinary sedative associated with stronger sedation effects for longer periods.

Medetomidine is many times stronger than xylazine and is not approved for human use, according to Mark Fuller, medical director of Carelon Health of Pennsylvania.

Narcan and naloxone, which reverse the effects of opioid overdose, do not interact with medetomidine or xylazine and are less effective in reversing overdose involving those substances, Fennell said.

Drug-related deaths are decreasing, but Young reported suicides appear to be increasing in the county so far in 2025. The number of suicides decreased by eight from 2023 to 2024 with 35 reported in 2023 and 27 reported in 2024.

“You just never know,” Young said. “Who would think suicides would be up and drugs would be down?”

The number of homicides remained the same in 2024 and 2023 with four.

The number of motor-vehicle-related deaths also decreased, with 12 reported in 2024 and 22 reported in 2023. Young said it’s difficult to pin down why motor-vehicle-related deaths rise and fall between years but said it could be attributed to weather patterns and new laws passed in different years.

The coroner investigated 193 cases in 2024 and 211 in 2023.

The coroner investigates all baby deaths and any death not from natural causes.