US EditionAround the nation: US overdose deaths continue to fall
The drop in overdose deaths stems from a sharp decline in fentanyl fatalities linked to Mexico’s intensified drug seizures and law enforcement efforts, CDC data shows.
- The downward trend continued in 2025, with provisional CDC estimates showing overdose deaths fell from more than 91,000 to fewer than 73,000, driven almost entirely by a drop in fentanyl-related deaths.
- Mexico launched Operation Northern Border, which seized 1.8 tons of fentanyl, destroyed nearly 1,900 labs, and captured almost 41,000 people, while CBP reported U.S. fentanyl seizures fell to 4.5 tons in 2025.
- Researchers point to broader factors including naloxone access, with Nabarun Dasgupta noting wider availability; Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition distributes Narcan weekly, and Van Ingram said the state provided more than 170,000 units in recent years.
- Consequently, both security metrics and migrant detentions have dropped, with Border Patrol arrests at 4,300 in 2025 and Mexico's Ministry of the Interior reporting 4,300 migrant detentions last month.
- Political actors have claimed credit, a claim critics and data scrutinizers dispute, as researchers warn supply-side efforts alone are unlikely causes and studies note pandemic normalization effects; Eric Trump wrote `No statistic has ever made me more proud`.
19 Articles
19 Articles
Alaska drug overdose deaths drop, though less dramatically than national plunge
Jeff Toole and Bernadette Hartley help assemble kits containing naloxone, a drug that reverses opioid overdoses, at a Aug. 29, 2025 event in Anchorage. The volunteer event held at the Fairview Community Recreation Center was organized by the Alaska Department of Health's Project HOPE and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. Wider distribution of the naloxone kits may have contributed to a decreate in overdose deaths. (Photo by Yereth Rose…
A report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that deaths from drug overdose fell by just over 20% last year, which is one of the most important declines in recent years. The study captures deaths recorded until August 2025 and suggests a significant change in a health crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the last decade. Read more
Why Fentanyl Deaths Are Falling
When fentanyl arrived in Washington, D.C., around 2014, none of our patients in the methadone clinic knew they were consuming it. They thought they were buying their usual heroin. But the Mexican cartels and major distributors that trafficked heroin across the border were starting to mix in fentanyl, a lab-synthesized opioid. Even the local dealers were unaware.Our patients could sense that something was different, though. At 50 times the potenc…
St. Croix Tribal Police Department reports zero overdoses in 2025 - First time since 2010
St. Croix Tribal Police Chief Donnie Holmes is looking ahead to 2026, as he shared that the department recorded zero drug overdoses in 2025, marking the first year since 2010 without a reported overdose and a significant milestone in community…
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