The number of people in the US dying from drug overdoses is falling for the first time in years—and it’s falling quickly.
Nationwide, overdose deaths fell 12.2% between April 2023 and April 2024 from 110,771 to 97,309, according to CDC data released in September. In comparison, overdose deaths fell by 3% between 2022 and 2023, the first annual decrease since 2018 when the number of deaths was 67,367.
Data from individual states shows even more drastic declines. In Ohio, for example, overdose deaths are down 32.6% so far this year compared to last, according to nonprofit Harm Reduction Ohio. And in Vermont, state health department data from January to June of this year shows overdose deaths have fallen about 16% compared to the average number of overdose deaths from the same period over the past three years.
Despite this, some experts are hesitant to celebrate—especially since there were still more than 100,000 overdose deaths in the US last year.
“I think we have to be careful when we get optimistic and see a slight drop in overdose deaths,” Dan Salter, executive director of the federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program for the Atlanta–Carolinas region, told NPR. “The last thing we want to do is spike the ball.”
So, where is the decrease coming from? It’s too soon to know for sure, experts told NPR. But there are some known factors that have likely contributed, such as the increased accessibility of naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug.
In early 2023, the FDA approved two types of over-the-counter naloxone nasal sprays—Narcan and RiVive—making the drug available without a prescription for the first time. And in May 2024, Walgreens released its own brand of naloxone priced at $34.99 for two doses, about $10 cheaper than Narcan.
The Biden administration has also taken steps to increase naloxone’s availability. In December 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services released guidance recommending all federal facilities keep naloxone on site.
And there are many state initiatives to increase naloxone access. For example, Michigan, Kentucky, and California have naloxone vending machines that dispense the drug for free in various locations including fire departments and other areas where data shows overdoses happen frequently.
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Preliminary CDC data shows that reported overdose deaths in Michigan fell 19.7% from 2023 to 2024. Similarly, Kentucky experienced a 17.7% decrease and California’s count went down 7.6% during the same time period.
“Expansion of naloxone and medications for opioid use disorder—these strategies worked,” Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), told NPR.
In Ohio, a decrease in the state’s supply of fentanyl seems to be the main cause behind the drop in overdose deaths, according to Harm Reduction Ohio. Ohio’s overdose deaths linked to fentanyl fell from 80% between 2020 and 2023 to nearly 70% in 2024, which is the lowest level in eight years, according to the nonprofit.
Overdose deaths also spiked during Covid-19 lockdowns and the subsequent social isolation period, so the pandemic ending could help explain the drop in deaths, experts told NPR.
Marked progress. Even if it is too soon to celebrate, some experts say that the drop in overdose deaths seen across the US is significant.
In a blog post from Opioid Data Lab—a research program created in a collaboration between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Florida—researchers wrote that NIDA had spent $343.7 million on research to show overdose deaths could be reduced by 9% in four states in one year through measures such as overdose education and increased naloxone access.
Seeing a 12.2% decrease across the entire country in a single year, the researchers said, is notable progress.
“A reduction of this magnitude across the entire country translates to a very strong acting force,” the researchers wrote in the post. “Something has changed. And that this is happening without central coordination is a big deal. It has major implications for the way we think about overdose prevention interventions.”