Rhode Island’s Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) is the state’s Single State Agency for substance use disorder treatment and the federally designated State Opioid Treatment Authority under 42 CFR Part 8. BHDDH licenses medical detoxification, outpatient detox, and opioid treatment programs under Title 40.1 of the Rhode Island General Laws and the state’s Behavioral Healthcare Organization regulations.
Rhode Island has become a national leader in overdose response, and the numbers show it. Overdose deaths fell 33.4 percent between 2024 and 2025, dropping to their lowest level since before 2013, and the state has already surpassed a goal it set for 2030. In 2024, Rhode Island also opened Project Weber/RENEW’s Overdose Prevention Center in Providence, the nation’s first state-regulated site where people can use drugs under medical supervision, a distinction that puts the state ahead of most others in its harm reduction infrastructure.
The drug supply itself has shifted in a way that matters for anyone considering detox: in 2024, cocaine overtook fentanyl as the substance involved in the largest share of fatal overdoses for the first time since 2013, and xylazine, a veterinary sedative, is now showing up in more than a third of opioid-related deaths. Anyone seeking treatment should expect intake staff to screen for polysubstance use rather than opioids alone.
