The Maryland State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS) is a statewide surveillance system containing information on accidental and undetermined intent overdose death in Maryland. SUDORS uses data from death certificates, medical examiner reports, and law enforcement reports when available. ​

SUDORS supplements the official numbers and rates produced by the Vital Statistics Administration, providing circumstance data not available anywhere else. This includes information about the injury and death; toxicology reports; and the decedent's social, mental, and physical health history. SUDORS also includes non-Maryland residents who fatally overdosed in Maryland. 

SUDORS is funded by the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which developed it to address three overarching needs: 1) to better understand the circumstances surrounding overdose death; 2) to improve overdose data timeliness and accuracy; and 3) to identify specific substances causing or contributing to the death as well as emerging and polysubstance overdose trends to help inform overdose prevention and response efforts. 

SUDORS produces statewide and local reports which summarize some of the key circumstances of opioid overdose deaths in Maryland, available below. For a more detailed overview of the types of data collected, please visit the list of SUDORS variables. Additional information and variable definitions can be found in the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) coding manual​ and the SUDORS coding manual​. The coding manuals describe how to code variables and can be informative to data users who wish to understand the nuance of the data captured by this surveillance system. 

Circumstances of Opioid Overdose Deaths in Maryland: Data from the 2020 Maryland State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS)