(C) Minnesota Reformer
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The Topline: New data on the overdose crisis [1]
['Christopher Ingraham', 'More From Author', '- October']
Date: 2023-10-16
Welcome to The Topline, a weekly roundup of the big numbers driving the Minnesota news cycle, as well as the smaller ones that you might have missed.
$400 million more in the bank
The state of Minnesota took in $400 million more than expected during the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, according to a recent memo from Minnesota Management and Budget. Part of that is from a smaller-than-expected one-time tax rebate payout this year, MPR News reports. But the state also took in more tax revenue than expected across the board.
Muskrat trouble?
The Star Tribune went deep on muskrats for a story last week. The animals are of economic interest to trappers because of their fur, but they also play critical roles in the environments they inhabit.
Muskrat harvest numbers are way down over the long term. In 1943, for instance, trappers took 2 million of the rodents, partially for food rations during the war (believe it or not, the U.S. government published a muskrat cookbook that year). Last year, on the other hand, the total statewide haul was just 18,900.
The Department of Natural Resources think the shrinking haul is mostly a result of fewer trappers and changing cultural attitudes toward fur. They’ve got a separate index that attempts to adjust for changes in the number of trappers each year, and that suggests that overall, muskrat populations are stable.
Twin Cities inflation lower than nationwide
The Twin Cities Consumer Price Index is up 2.2% year-over-year in September, well below the national average of 3.7%, the Star Tribune reported. Dairy and produce prices are actually down year-over-year, if you can believe it.
A nearly 20% drop in Twin Cities household energy costs seems to be driving much of the overall number, which suggests that last month’s unusually warm temperatures — which could have resulted in less heat usage — may bear some of the credit.
One guy apparently did a whole lot of carjackings
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced criminal charges against one man — Romell Roshode Lewis — who was allegedly responsible for at least 10 burglaries, vehicle thefts and carjackings in Edina and Minnetonka this summer.
In economics and other social sciences there’s a concept called the Pareto Principle which states, very broadly, that 20% of the people are responsible for about 80% of any given behavior. You see variations of it in consumption data, for instance, or in the distribution of income.
You can often see it in crime data too, where a small number of offenders are responsible for large volumes of crime. Identifying those high-volume offenders — like Mr. Lewis, allegedly — can go a long way toward improving the quality of life for everyone else. (See also: this recent Hennepin County case involving a different guy responsible for dozens of robberies).
Chart of the week: where the overdose crisis is hitting the hardest
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension recently published a dashboard of drug-related arrests, deaths and non-fatal overdoses. The data are noteworthy for being both timely and extremely detailed.
They allow you to view county-level overdose deaths, for instance, that the CDC and other data sources typically suppress for smaller counties due to privacy concerns. The tool also allows you to see year-to-date counts for 2023.
This level of detail is especially important for monitoring the overdose crisis, as it can help community groups and local leaders identify and understand drug use trends in their areas.
Above, for instance, is a county-level map of fatal drug overdose rates. It shows that between 2019 and 2022, overdose deaths were heavily concentrated in the northeastern quadrant of the state, with Hennepin and Ramsey counties also showing up as hot spots.
But Mahnomen County in the northwest, home to the White Earth Indian Reservation, had the highest mortality rate at 352 deaths per 100,000 population. The 19 overdose deaths there, coupled with a small population of just 5,400 people, are responsible for that high rate.
A number of other low-population counties in western Minnesota, including Kittson, Norman, and Red Lake, notched zero overdose deaths among county residents during that period.
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[1] Url:
https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/10/16/the-topline-new-data-on-the-overdose-crisis/
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