Fentanyl deaths in the U.S. have dropped faster than expected, CDC says

By Brian Mann

Published October 17, 2024 at 3:46 PM CDT

People protested in front of the White House in September 2023 to raise awareness of opioid-related deaths. A year later, the number of fentanyl-related deaths in the U.S. has dropped sharply.

A hopeful and unexpected drop in U.S. drug overdose deaths appears to be gaining speed. Fatal overdoses are down 12.7%, according to data released this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It marks another significant improvement from last month, when surveys showed roughly a 10.6% drop in fatalities from street drugs.

"This is the largest recorded reduction in overdose deaths, and the sixth consecutive month of reported decreases," White House officials said in a statement.

Experts say the drop in street drug mortality marks a dramatic reversal from just a few years ago when fatal overdoses were spiraling upward at devastating speed, fueled largely by the spread of street fentanyl.

If the trend holds, this year is expected to be the first since 2020 to see overdose deaths fall below the 100,000 mark.

During a press conference on Thursday, public health officials from New York City and Seattle said their experience locally mirrors the national trend.

Brad Finegood, who coordinates overdose and addiction programs in King County, Wash., which includes Seattle, pointed to a 22% decline in fatal overdoses in the first nine months of this year.

"That for us represents an extremely significant decline," Finegood said. "Our nonfatal overdoses have also decreased significantly."

According to public health officials in King County, Washington, which includes Seattle, drug overdose deaths have declined sharply in 2024.

New York City saw more modest improvement: a decline of 1% in fatal overdoses from 2022 to 2023. “This represents the beginning, the green shoots of progress,” said city Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, who is leaving office on Friday.

Vasan said New York's small decline in drug deaths reverses a four-year trend when fatal overdoses rose sharply. He also said fatal overdoses in the first three months of this year appear to have dropped rapidly.

However, public health experts said some communities, especially Blacks and Native Americans, are not yet seeing significant declines in overdose deaths.

“Older African American men are particularly vulnerable,” said Chrissie Juliano, executive director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, a group made up of some of the nation’s largest urban public health departments.

During Thursday's press conference, Juliano and other experts noted that poverty, homelessness and racial disparities in access to healthcare appear to be making it much harder for some groups to recover.

Gupta, the White House drug czar, said the drop in drug deaths, while welcome, is only a beginning. "We have removed more barriers to treatment for substance use disorder than ever before and invested historic levels of funding to help crack down on illicit drug trafficking at the border," Gupta said. He pointed to the widespread availability of the opioid overdose reversal medication naloxone as another likely factor reducing deaths.

"This new data shows there is hope, there is progress, and there is an urgent call to action ... to save even more lives," Gupta said in a statement.

A debate has begun among drug policy experts and public health officials over why fatal overdoses are declining so rapidly.

Scientists who study the street drug supply say there has been a notable drop in the availability and purity of fentanyl available on U.S. streets.

Other researchers believe the shift reflects the devastatingly high number of drug deaths between 2020 and 2023, when tens of thousands of vulnerable people lost their lives to fentanyl, methamphetamines and other substances.