US overdose deaths plunged 27% last year

What happened

Deaths from drug overdoses dropped 27% in 2024, the largest one-year decline on record, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. Nearly 30,000 fewer people died from overdoses, according to the CDC's preliminary numbers, though the 80,391 recorded fatalities still topped the total for 2019, before a spike in overdoses during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Who said what

Every state but Nevada and South Dakota recorded fewer fatal overdoses last year, and Ohio, West Virginia and New Hampshire saw declines of 35% or more. "No single reason explains the sudden drop in deaths," The Washington Post said, but experts cited a combination of the increased availability of overdose-reversing drug naloxone, expanded addiction treatment and prevention programs, shifts in drug use and supply and "the grim reality that fentanyl has killed so many regular users that there are fewer people at risk of overdose."

Drops in fatal overdoses "don't just happen overnight," Sheila P. Vakharia at the Drug Policy Alliance told the Post, and in this case "we can credit them to the Biden administration's work." President Donald Trump views illicit drugs as "largely a law enforcement issue and as a reason to step up border security," The Associated Press said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

What next?

Drug overdose "remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44, underscoring the need for ongoing efforts to maintain this progress," the CDC said in a statement. "I don't see how it can be sustained," given the Trump administration's "deep cuts" to "many of the programs that have been driving these reductions," Brandeis University epidemiologist Traci C. Green told The New York Times. "It seems ridiculous to cut that momentum so dramatically."