Drug overdose deaths dropped in the United States last year to the lowest levels seen in five years, according to a new federal report published Wednesday morning.
The provisional report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics found nationwide drug overdose deaths fell from 110,037 in 2023 to 80,391 in 2024.
This represents a decline of 26.9% and the lowest figure of annual drug overdose deaths since 2019, according to the report.
This is the second year in a row that drug overdose deaths have dropped after year-over-year increases were seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, and researchers say they’re cautiously optimistic about the declines.
“We should have a guarded enthusiasm here because what we’re seeing is almost the return to the overdose death rates that we had before the pandemic,” Dr. Petros Levounis, a professor and chair of the department of psychiatry and associate decant of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, who was not involved in the report, told ABC News.
“So essentially, we have corrected the bump and the increase in overdose deaths we experienced with the pandemic,” he added.
U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths
National Center for Health Statistics
The report found the biggest drop in deaths by drug type was seen in fatalities linked to synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, which fell from 76,282 to 48,422 between 2023 and 2024.
Declines were also seen in overdose deaths from psychostimulants, such as methamphetamine; cocaine; and natural or semi-synthetic drugs such as morphine.
Additionally, nearly every state across the country saw decreases in drug overdose deaths. Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin, as well as Washington, D.C., saw declines of 35% or more from 2023 to 2024, according to the report.
By comparison, South Dakota and Nevada each saw slight increases in 2024 compared to 2023, the report found.
Lavounis, who is also the director of Rutgers’ Northern New Jersey Medications for Addiction Treatment Center of Excellence, said public health officials should also pay attention to Alaska, where opioid overdoses have steadily been increasing since at least 2018.
Overdose rates in Alaska have reached historic levels, according to CDC data, due to a proliferation of fentanyl
Fentanyl is up to 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine and can be deadly even in small doses, according to the CDC. Other drugs may be laced with deadly levels of fentanyl, and a user is not able to see it, taste it, or smell it.
Experts told ABC News they believe there a few reasons behind the drop in overdose deaths. One reason is the more widespread use of naloxone, the overdose reversal drug.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan for over-the-counter use in March 2023.
Narcan, made by the company Emergent BioSolutions, is given as a nasal spray and naloxone — the active ingredient in the medication — can quickly restore one’s breathing if an individual is experiencing an opioid overdose, though its effect is temporary and some people may need additional doses.
Harm reduction groups and other experts have been pushing for easier access to naloxone as one strategy to help prevent some of the tens of thousands of overdose deaths that occur each year in the U.S.
Stock photo of drug use.
Manusapon Kasosod/Getty Images
Dr. Allison Lin, an addiction psychiatrist at University of Michigan Medical School, who was not involved in the report, said there has also been wider use of medications to treat opioid use disorder as well as an increase of public awareness of the dangers of opioid use.
“These are the things that we know, at least from a research perspective, to be lifesaving,” she told ABC News. “We’ve been battling this overdose epidemic for now over a decade, and so there’s been tremendous efforts invested by communities, by the federal government, by our state governments, anything from prevention to overdose education.”
Lin said although the data is encouraging, it’s too soon to say the overdose crisis in the U.S. is over and that public health officials should continue their efforts to drive down overdose death rates.
“It’s nice to celebrate all the hard work that people have been putting in; we’re starting to see some rewards from that,” she said. “But it’s not time to like move from the gas pedal, I would say.”
