Overdose deaths appear to be declining sharply in the U.S., a sign that efforts to combat the scourge of lethal fentanyl may be paying off even as experts caution that the toll remains unacceptably high and could rise again. Preliminary data compiled by states and released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a 10 percent drop in deaths during the 12-month period ending in April 2024, with about 101,000 people succumbing to overdoses, the Washington Post reports. Experts said the decline could reflect multiple forces, including widespread availability of the overdose-reversal medication naloxone, greater access to opioid addiction treatment and law-enforcement crackdowns on illicitly manufactured fentanyl, which has been the leading killer of 18-to-49-year-olds. Some experts suspect the illicit drug supply is shifting to include less fentanyl and that fewer people are using alone as the social isolation of the pandemic has receded.
Because fentanyl carved such a deadly path, the population of potential victims has shrunk, said Daniel Ciccarone of the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine who studies street drugs and overdose trends. “The overdose decline is both welcome and perplexing,” Ciccarone said. News of the decrease comes in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, with fentanyl emerging as a political flash point. The public health crisis sparked by the drug has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths in red and blue states across administrations from both parties. Former president Trump has tied the fentanyl crisis to the southern border, blaming President Biden for immigration policies that allows Mexican cartels to flood the country with the synthetic drug, which is up for 50 times more powerful than heroin. Officials say most fentanyl enters through legal ports of entry, often with U.S. citizens acting as couriers. Vice President Harris said stopping the flow of fentanyl would be a priority if she is elected to the White House. The Biden administration has provided billions of dollars to states in a campaign to reduce overdoses while embracing strategies to minimize the harmful effects of drugs on users.
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