US overdose deaths fell 27% last year, the largest one-year decline ever
seen
[May 15, 2025]
By MIKE STOBBE and GEOFF MULVIHILL
There were 30,000 fewer U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2024 than the year
before — the largest one-year decline ever recorded.
An estimated 80,000 people died from overdoses last year, according to
provisional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released
Wednesday. That’s down 27% from the 110,000 in 2023.
The CDC has been collecting comparable data for 45 years. The previous
largest one-year drop was 4% in 2018, according to the agency’s National
Center for Health Statistics.
All but two states saw declines last year, with Nevada and South Dakota
experiencing small increases. Some of the biggest drops were in Ohio,
West Virginia and other states that have been hard-hit in the nation's
decades-long overdose epidemic.
Experts say more research needs to be done to understand what drove the
reduction, but they mention several possible factors. Among the most
cited:
— Increased availability of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone.
— Expanded addiction treatment.
— Shifts in how people use drugs.
— The growing impact of billions of dollars in opioid lawsuit settlement
money.
— The number of at-risk Americans is shrinking, after waves of deaths in
older adults and a shift in teens and younger adults away from the drugs
that cause most deaths.
Still, annual overdose deaths are higher than they were before the
COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement, the CDC noted that overdoses are
still the leading cause of death for people 18-44 years old,
“underscoring the need for ongoing efforts to maintain this progress.”
Some experts worry that the recent decline could be slowed or stopped by
reductions in federal funding and the public health workforce, or a
shift away from the strategies that seem to be working.
“Now is not the time to take the foot off the gas pedal,” said Dr.
Daniel Ciccarone, a drug policy expert at the University of California,
San Francisco.
The provisional numbers are estimates of everyone who died of overdoses
in the U.S., including noncitizens. That data is still being processed,
and the final numbers can sometimes differ a bit. But it’s clear that
there was a huge drop last year.
Experts note that there have been past moments when U.S. overdose deaths
seemed to have plateaued or even started to go down, only to rise again.
That happened in 2018.
But there are reasons to be optimistic.
Naloxone has become more widely available, in part because of the
introduction of over-the-counter versions that don’t require
prescriptions.
Meanwhile, drug manufacturers, distributors, pharmacy chains and other
businesses have settled lawsuits with state and local governments over
the painkillers that were a main driver of overdose deaths in the past.
The deals over the last decade or so have promised about $50 billion
over time, with most of it required to be used to fight addiction.
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This Tuesday, April 1, 2025 photo shows the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention building in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Ben Gray,
file)
 Another settlement that would be
among the largest, with members of the Sackler family who own
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma agreeing to pay up to $7 billion,
could be approved this year.
The money, along with federal taxpayer funding, is going to a
variety of programs, including supportive housing and harm reduction
efforts, such as providing materials to test drugs for fentanyl, the
biggest driver of overdoses now.
But what each state will do with that money is currently at issue.
“States can either say, ‘We won, we can walk away’” in the wake of
the declines or they can use the lawsuit money on naloxone and other
efforts, said Regina LaBelle, a former acting director of the Office
of National Drug Control Policy. She now heads an addiction and
public policy program at Georgetown University.
President Donald Trump’s administration views opioids as largely a
law enforcement issue and as a reason to step up border security. It
also has been reorganizing and downsizing federal health agencies.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said overdose prevention
efforts will continue, but some public health experts say cuts mean
the work will not go on at the same level.
U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Pennsylvania Democrat, asked Kennedy at
a Wednesday hearing “why the hell” those changes are being made when
the steep drop in deaths showed “we were getting somewhere.” Some
advocates made a similar point in a call with reporters last week.
“We believe that taking a public health approach that seeks to
support — not punish — people who use drugs is crucial to ending the
overdose crisis,” said Dr. Tamara Olt, an Illinois woman whose
16-year-old son died of a heroin overdose in 2012. She is now
executive director of Broken No Moore, an advocacy organization
focused on substance use disorder.
Olt attributes recent declines to the growing availability of
naloxone, work to make treatment available, and wider awareness of
the problem.
Kimberly Douglas, an Illinois woman whose 17-year-old son died of an
overdose in 2023, credited the growing chorus of grieving mothers.
“Eventually people are going to start listening," she said.
"Unfortunately, it's taken 10-plus years.”
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