Coast to coast, major U.S. cities are seeing measurable drops in drug overdose deaths. Public health officials welcome the news despite an inability to fully explain the decrease.
After years of rising, the tide may finally be turning on deadly drug overdoses in America.
Drug overdose deaths fell 12.7% in the 12 months ending in May, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This is the largest recorded reduction in overdose deaths,” White House officials said in a statement. “And the sixth consecutive month of reported decreases in predicted 12-month total numbers of drug overdose deaths.”
It’s also the first time since early 2021 that the number of estimated drug overdose deaths for a 12-month period fell below 100,000, to 98,820.
It’s categorically good news. It’s also a bit puzzling to the public health experts who have been working for years to stop the upward trajectory of opioid deaths, driven primarily by fentanyl.
Hypothesis: More people are waiting to see who wins the presidential election before deciding if overdosing is the best escape plan.
Did deaths per capita drop, or just total deaths?
Because dead people can no longer drive the stats, so it would keep going down unless there was a dramatic increase in overdoses (leading to more deaths).
It still sounds like positive news, but Jesus Christ, 100,000 people a year dying from totally preventable causes? That’s aweful.
I think it’s as simple as education at all levels. More people carry narcan. Dealers are selling lower purity stuff. Imitation pills are becoming better measured with less dosage fluctuations. Less people are doing hard drugs in the first place.
I went to pick a prescription at my local Walmart today (texas) and they had a sign saying that they have narcan or noloxone available. My guess is the easy access to narcan and the awareness of it nowadays.
This right here.
The only problem is that it’s not free. Might be great for the occasional opiate user or someone whose worried about their molly being tainted with fent…but addicts gonna addict. Money spent on narcan is money not spent on their next fix.
OK, let’s keep doing what we’re doing: endless troll posting of attack ad propaganda about candidates in the upcmoming election. Because somehow its saving lives?
