In Maryland, 1,774 people died of drug or alcohol intoxication in the first nine months of 2019, the latest data available, with opioids responsible for nearly 90 percent of those fatalities. While the overall number of deaths dropped for the first time since 2010, by about 4 percent, the toll remains high because of the influx of fentanyl, the highly toxic opioid often mixed with heroin and responsible for more than 80 percent of fatal overdoses.