The death of drug overdose fell in the United States last year to the lowest level seen in five years, according to a new federal report published Wednesday morning.
Provisional reports from the Center for Disease Control and National Center for Health Statistics found that national drug overdose deaths fell from 110,037 in 2023 to 80,391 in 2024.
This represented a decline of 26.9% and the lowest number of the death of annual drug overdose since 2019, according to the report.
This is the second year in a row that the death of the drug overdose has fallen after the increase in years-to-year was seen during the Covid-19 Pandemic, and the researchers said they were very optimistic about the decline.
“We must have the enthusiasm that is maintained here because what we see is almost the return of the death rate of the overdose that we have before Pandemic,” Dr. Petros Levounis, a professor and chairman of the Psychiatry and Decant Department of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, who was not involved in the report, told ABC News.
“So basically, we have corrected a lump and increased death of the overdose that we experienced with Pandemic,” he added.
Death of US drug overdose
National Health Statistics Center
The report found the biggest decline in death based on the type of drug seen in death related to synthetic opioids, including Fentanyl, which dropped from 76,282 to 48,422 between 2023 and 2024.
The decline was also seen in the death of overdose from psychostimulants, such as metamfetamine; cocaine; and natural or semi-synthetic remedies such as morphine.
In addition, almost every state throughout the country experienced a decrease in the death of drug overdose. Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin, and Washington, DC, decreased 35% or more than 2023 to 2024, according to the report.
In comparison, South Dakota and Nevada each see a slight increase in 2024 compared to 2023, the report was found.
Lavounis, who is also the Director of Medicines -New Jersey North Rutgers for the center of addictive care advantage, said that public health officials must also pay attention to Alaska, where the Overdose Opioid continues to increase since at least 2018.
The overdose level in Alaska has reached a historic level, according to CDC data, because A Fentanyl Proliferation
Fentanyl up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine and can be deadly even in small doses, according to CDC. Other drugs can be filled with deadly fentanyl levels, and users cannot see it, feel it, or kiss it.
Experts told ABC News that they believe there are several reasons behind the decline in overdose death. One of the reasons is the wider use of naloxson, overdose reverse drug.
The administration of US food and medicines approved Narcan to be excessive in March 2023.
Narcan, made by the company that appears biosolution, is given as a nasal spray and naloxon – active ingredients in drugs – can quickly restore a person’s breathing if someone has an opioid overdose, although the effect is temporary and some people may require additional doses.
The hazard reduction group and other experts have encouraged easier access to Naloxon as one of the strategies to help prevent several thousands of overdose deaths that occur every year in the US
Stock of drug use photos.
Manusapon Kasosod/Getty Images
Allison Lin, a psychiatrist of addiction at the University of Michigan Medical School, who was not involved in this report, said there was also a wider use of drugs to treat disorders of opioid use and an increase in public awareness about the dangers of opioid use.
“These are things that we know, at least from the research perspective, to save lives,” he told ABC News. “We have struggled against this overdose epidemic so that more than a decade now, and there is an extraordinary effort invested by the community, by the Federal Government, by the government of our states, whatever from prevention to educational overdose.”
Lin said that even though the data was encouraging, it was too early to say the overdose crisis in the US had ended and that public health officials had to continue their efforts to reduce the death rate of overdose.
“It’s fun to celebrate all the hard work that people have done; we begin to see some gifts from it,” he said. “But this is not the time to move from the gas pedal, I will say.”