Overdose deaths have exceeded 100,000 for the third consecutive year, a stark reminder that the nation is still in an unyielding epidemic driven by fentanyl. According to provisional data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 107,543 people died in 2023, a slight decrease from the previous year. The agency described it as the first annual decrease in deaths since 2018, although experts cautioned that the numbers could rise in ensuing years and that the toll remains unacceptably high, reports the Washington Post. “It’s only a partial victory,” said University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health researcher Donald Burke, who believes that the death toll will keep rising, citing his analysis of decades of mortality data. The CDC on Wednesday described the decrease as a sign that federal efforts to help prevent deaths and treat addiction in states are paying off.
Local, state and federal officials have struggled to find answers to the addiction epidemic, which began decades ago with legal prescription pain pills flooding communities. When those pills became difficult to obtain, users turned to heroin — replaced in turn by illicit fentanyl, which often hits the streets pressed as pills. The synthetic opioid, up to 50 times more potent than heroin, drove the skyrocketing numbers of deaths, which topped 100,000 nationally for the first time in 2021. The following year, according to federal data, the spike slowed but still reached nearly 110,000 confirmed deaths — a record high. In 2023, the estimated number of deaths attributed to synthetic opioids was 74,702, a slight decrease from the previous year, although those drugs continued to be the single biggest driver of lethal overdoses. Fatal overdose trends varied regionally, reflecting the ever-evolving illicit drug market, differences in how states approach reducing the harms of narcotics, and barriers in getting treatment for substance use, experts say.