opioid overdose deaths Cases have now slowed to the lowest level nationwide since 2020, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is the 12th consecutive month decline From last year's peak.
About 70,655 deaths are linked to opioids like heroin fentanyl Reported for the year ending June 2024, now CDC EstimateFalling 18% from the same time in 2023.
Almost all but a few states in the West, from Alaska to Nevada, are now seeing significant declines in overdose deaths. Quick data Canada also suggests that overdose deaths may now slow from their peak in 2023.
Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said, “Although these figures are cause for optimism, we should not lose sight of the fact that drug overdoses still cause nearly 100,000 deaths annually in the United States.” is estimated.” In a statement.
Apart from opioids, overdoses from other types of drugs are also decreasing. Although they account for a small share of total deaths, overdoses involving drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine are also showing signs of declining across the country after a peak last year.
“We're encouraged by this data, but boy, it's time to double down on the things that we know are working. This is not the time to step back, and I feel very strongly, and our The data shows the threat continues to evolve,'' Dr. Allison Arwady, head of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, told CBS News.
Arwady pointed to a long list of factors that officials expect are contributing to the decline, including the widespread availability of overdose reversing sprays. Naloxone, also known as Narcanfor efforts to ease access gap To Medicines that can treat Opioid use disorder.
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Trends in what health officials call “primary prevention” have also improved in recent years — meaning fewer people are using drugs to begin with. As an example, Arwady cited the CDC survey There is a clear decline in high school students reporting that they have used illicit drugs.
The CDC and health departments have also been quicker to collect and analyze data to respond to the surge in overdoses, often caused by new so-called “adulterants,” Arwady said. Health officials study it by testing blood and medicine samples. In view of the surge, look for potential emerging drug threats.
Arwady said agency researchers are now taking a closer look at what might be driving the gap in communities that have yet to see a recession.
“Unfortunately, for the groups most affected, namely Native Americans and Black American men, the death rate is not decreasing and remains at the highest recorded level,” Volkow said.
Why are deaths due to drug overdose decreasing?
In the months following the CDC data first started With the deadly record wave of opioid overdose deaths showing real signs of change nationwide, experts have offered several theories to explain what is causing the change.
“We were seeing a decline in the numbers nationally since last April, and we were skeptical and keeping our mouths shut. Then we started hearing from a lot of people on the ground, frontline providers,” Nabarun Dasgupta. , a senior scientist at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill who studies opioid overdose deaths.
Dasgupta led an analysis on September The nationwide scope of the decline has been documented by the university's Opioid Data Lab and several theories are being examined that could explain it.
He dismissed some explanations as unlikely, such as stepped-up law enforcement operations. Other ideas he considered plausible but complicated to prove, such as the so-called “lack of vulnerable people” – essentially the pandemic burning itself out, as users found ways to survive. flow of fentanyl Or died – or the widespread availability of naloxone.
Dasgupta said he has been inundated with interest since proposing more theories in his initial post new scanner Who were deployed on the US-Mexico border.
Dasgupta says that many factors may play a role in this change. But he said early data from the research he is now completing supports a major explanation: changes in illicit drug supply.
Dasgupta said, “Our hypothesis is that there has been some change in the drug supply. This kind of apparent change, something that happens suddenly, if the numbers had suddenly increased, we would certainly look for changes in the drug supply to explain it.” Would be pointing towards change.” ,
Among its negative aspects, xylazineThey estimate that this increase may have reduced the use of injection drugs. Its longer peak may also reduce the number of times people use fentanyl per day.
He said, “We are not celebrating in our offices. We are still losing a lot of people we love. So I just want to make it clear that over a million people are still dying, It's too much.”