Working Together to Keep People Alive
There are no easy answers when it comes to stopping the opioid epidemic. If you are trying to better understand the problem, prevent addiction, or save a life, please go to the Snohomish Overdose Prevention website. This is a place to find information for that first next step and is intended to be a one-stop shop for resources.
This dashboard is the result of ongoing collaboration between the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office, Snohomish County Department of Information Technology and the Snohomish County Opioid Multi-Agency Coordination (MAC) Group Data Collection Committee. The data is collected from the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office Expedited Drug Analysis Program (EDAP). This site is interactive, allowing the user to generate reports by date of death, decedent age, drug type and class.
The cases listed in this dashboard represent deaths caused by drugs and alcohol, where drugs and/or alcohol were identified as a primary contributing factor. As you will see from the data, drug-related deaths in Snohomish County are generally a result of combined drug intoxication. Combined drug intoxication occurs when two or more prescription, over-the-counter, recreational drugs and/or alcoholic beverages are consumed simultaneously.
This dashboard does not include deaths where drugs were found but did not contribute to the cause of death, such as a passenger in a motor vehicle collision who tested positive for methamphetamine.
Because of the inherent private and secretive nature of drug use, the exact circumstances leading to fatal drug toxicity are often not clearly defined.
This dashboard is the result of ongoing collaboration between the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office, Snohomish County Department of Information Technology and the Snohomish County Opioid Multi-Agency Coordination (MAC) Group Data Collection Committee. The data is collected from the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office Expedited Drug Analysis Program (EDAP). This site is interactive, allowing the user to generate reports by date of death, decedent age, drug type and class.
The cases listed in this dashboard represent deaths caused by drugs and alcohol, where drugs and/or alcohol were identified as a primary contributing factor. As you will see from the data, drug-related deaths in Snohomish County are generally a result of combined drug intoxication. Combined drug intoxication occurs when two or more prescription, over-the-counter, recreational drugs and/or alcoholic beverages are consumed simultaneously.
This dashboard does not include deaths where drugs were found but did not contribute to the cause of death, such as a passenger in a motor vehicle collision who tested positive for methamphetamine.
Because of the inherent private and secretive nature of drug use, the exact circumstances leading to fatal drug toxicity are often not clearly defined.
The following criteria was used to determine if the case was included in this dashboard:
- Cases pending laboratory confirmation are not included
- The location of the death was within Snohomish County limits
- The cause of Death includes the following drugs:
- Opioids
- Methamphetamine
- Cocaine
- Alcohol
- Benzodiazepines
- MDMA (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, commonly known as ecstasy or molly)
- Synthetic Cannabinoids
Click here to view the User Guide
Limitations/Considerations
Laboratory results do not return in the order submitted due to the complexity of some tests. "Pending" cases are not included. Total counts may change as final toxicology results come back from the certified laboratories.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office EDAP data may not exactly match the Washington State Department of Health's drug overdose data due to slight differences in reporting criteria and reporting codes used by the different software.
Additional demographic reports will be made available online as static reports.
Questions/Feedback
If you have general questions about the dashboard, or would like to provide feedback, please email: Contact.MedicalExaminer.Investigation@co.snohomish.wa.us
For technical assistance related to the dashboard, please contact the Data and GIS team at Snohomish County: GIS@snoco.org