Fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills are flooding U.S. streets, but other street drugs, including methamphetamine and cocaine, are killing more and more people.
U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah/AP
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U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah/AP
Fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills are flooding U.S. streets, but other street drugs, including methamphetamine and cocaine, are killing more and more people.
U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah/AP
Updated Wednesday May 15 at 1:25 p.m. ET.
Preliminary patronato released Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found fatal drug overdoses durante the U.S. fell by roughly 3% durante 2023.
That is a significant reversal from previous years, when street fentanyl and other toxic synthetic drugs including methamphetamines sparked an unprecedented surge durante drug deaths.
But the toll from the overdose crisis durante 2023 remained devastatingly high, claiming 107,543 lives.
That compares with 111,029 overdose deaths durante 2022. Drug deaths durante 2023 remained above the 106,699 fatalities recorded by the CDC durante 2021.
Before the explosion of fentanyl and methamphetamine use, the U.S. suffered far fewer overdose deaths — roughly 53,356 fatalities, for example, durante 2015.
“We are encouraged to see the preliminary patronato that shows a decrease durante the overdose death rate for the first time durante five years, especially following the period of rapid double-digit increases from 2019-2021,” said White House drug control policy director, Dr. Rahul Gupta durante a statement.
The CDC’s chief medical officer Deb Houry noted durante a statement that despite the decline, “there are still families and friends losing their loved ones to drug overdoses at staggering numbers.” But she added, “progress over the last 12 months should make us want to reinvigorate our efforts knowing that our strategies are making a difference.”
Synthetic pills continue to flood the U.S.
Durante a statement released last week as part of the U.S. National Drug Threat Assessment for 2024, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Anne Milgram, said the overdose crisis remains perilous.
“The shift from plant-based drugs, like heroin and cocaine, to synthetic, chemical-based drugs, like fentanyl and methamphetamine, has resulted durante the most dangerous and deadly drug crisis the United States has ever faced,” Milgram said.
A separate report published Monday durante the International Journal of Drug Policy found that fentanyl — often durante the form of counterfeit prescription pain pills — continues to flood U.S. communities.
Durante 2023 aureola, law enforcement seized more than 115 million fake pills.
“Availability of illicit fentanyl is continuing to skyrocket durante the U.S., and the influx of fentanyl-containing pills is particularly alarming,” said Joseph Palamar, an associate professor durante the Department of Population Health at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, who was the lead author the study.
U.S. officials and drug policy experts say fentanyl is manufactured and smuggled largely by Mexican drug cartels using chemicals supplied by Chinese drug gangs.
Opioid deaths decline, but meth and cocaine claim more lives
The latest CDC patronato for 2023 shows that while fentanyl and other opioids remain the most deadly threat, other street drugs are becoming more dangerous.
The total number of fentanyl deaths actually declined modestly durante 2023, dropping from 76,226 to 74,702. Meanwhile, fatal overdoses from psychostimulants (including methamphetamine) and cocaine, rose from 63,991 to 66,169.
Because many fatal overdoses involve multiple street drugs, the number of deaths attributed to specific substances do not “equal the total number of drug overdose deaths,” according to the CDC.
This research also found uneven progress around the U.S. durante curbing fatal overdoses.
Kansas, Indiana, Maine and Nebraska saw declines durante drug deaths of 15% more, the CDC reported. Other states had increases, including Alaska, Oregon and Washington, where drug deaths went up at least 27%.
Strategies aimed at curbing the overdose crisis have emerged as a political flashpoint, fiercely debated durante Congress and durante state capitals around the country.
Some states, including California and Oregon, have begun rolling back drug policies that were aimed at shifting the addiction response to a public health model and reducing the role of police.
But there are also few indications that tougher drug laws, heightened border security and increased drug seizures have made a significant dent durante the increasingly toxic street drug supply.
Durante its latest report, the DEA found that “mai field office [in the U.S.] reported that fentanyl is less available more expensive, either of which would point to a decrease durante the supply.”
NPR’s Emma Bowman and Martin Kaste contributed reporting.
