For Jedale Parsons, New Year’s Day offers no renewal or fresh start. Instead, it’s marked a dark period of her life — like she’s “frozen” in time, she said — after her son, Hunter Parsons, died of an overdose on the first day of 2023. He was 24.

New Year’s Day has been the deadliest day of the year for overdoses, a Banner analysis of a decade of autopsy data found, reflecting a pattern in Baltimore, which is experiencing the worst overdose epidemic of any major American city in American history. The overdose rate in Baltimore is almost double that of any other large city.

Drug use while celebrating a holiday is one reason New Year’s Day tends to see more overdose deaths on average, said Dr. Olivia Sugarman, an assistant scientist in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“This also happens around the same time that mental health concerns and suicidality rates increase around the holidays,” Sugarman said. “So it could be that people are feeling isolated or depressed and are using more often than they normally would.”

Eight people died of overdoses or were found dead of an overdose on Jan. 1, 2023, tied for the most of any one day that year and more than twice the number of victims found on an average day in Baltimore. From 2014 to 2023, an average of 4.2 people were found dead from overdoses on Jan. 1, the most of any day.

In 2023, Hunter was the youngest of the eight who died. Like five others, his overdose involved fentanyl.

Despite his mother’s efforts to help him — with his incarceration, his attempts at rehabilitation and eventual homelessness — he relapsed.

Jedale Parsons, who was an addict before getting clean in 2013, wishes she could have helped her son feel less alone.

“I cannot tell you the stress of loving somebody that much, but you just can’t get through to them because the drugs have just taken over,” she said. “I thought that when I was an addict, I did some pretty bad things. But whatever’s in that fentanyl, it’s very powerful.”

There have been 41 deaths in Baltimore City on New Year’s Day from 2014 to 2023, a Banner analysis found. Five of the victims lived in a county outside the city.

The majority of these deaths were Black men in their 50s, which matches the demographics for the most common overdose victims in Baltimore. The epidemic is also killing young children. Since 2020, at least 18 children under the age of 5 died of overdoses in Baltimore.

Celebrating without substances can be an adjustment for people with addiction issues. In East Baltimore, many turn to Dee’s Place, which has been helping people in recovery for the past 20 years.

In long-term recovery himself, Dwayne Bruce, a project director for the past two years at Dee’s Place, said the recurring New Year’s Eve gathering was known to be the party that never ends — long before his arrival.

“People tend to relapse during the holidays, during the New Year, because they are used to bringing in the New Year under the influence,” Bruce said.

The gathering at Dee’s Place allows people to celebrate in a substance-free environment, where staff members are present, Bruce said. Along with festivities, Narcotics Anonymous meetings are held throughout the night.

A mother’s heartbreak

Having resources like naloxone and fentanyl testing strips or having drug testing services available during the holidays would be one way to help prevent New Year’s Day overdose deaths, said Sugarman, but they aren’t a full solution.

“Even if someone has something like naloxone ,which is an opioid reversal drug, if you’re not able to use it on yourself and there’s nobody around, there’s not much else you can do,” Sugarman said.

She recommended the Never Use Alone hotline (877-696-1996), where a volunteer can call emergency services if the caller becomes unresponsive.

In more extreme cases, like that of Hunter Parsons, the desperation and disregard were evident, Jedale Parsons said. After his girlfriend died on Christmas Eve in 2022, Hunter Parsons began to spiral. He would fall asleep while at work behind the grill at the local IHOP, then he stole valuables from family members while staying with them. Eventually, he had no where to live.

For the last two years of his life, Jedale Parsons said, her son’s life became riddled with hospital visits to monitor a pacemaker for his irregular heartbeat and the MRSA infection he contracted from drug use, all while attempting rehab three separate times.

After undergoing heart surgery in December 2022, Hunter Parsons left the hospital against medical advice. A few days later, a Johns Hopkins Hospital surgeon called Jedale Parsons, informing her that Hunter had a severe infection in his blood and needed to return immediately or he would die.

Baltimore City Police called around 2 p.m. on New Year’s Day. Police told her it looked as if Hunter Parsons had sat down on a stoop to rest, but when they walked up to him they realized he was dead, she said.

“I was at home, cooking pork and sauerkraut and waiting for him to return to the hospital, but he never did,” Jedale Parsons said. “It felt like he knew he didn’t want another surgery — like he was ready to give up.”