A Closer Look at 107,543 Lives Lost to Drug Overdoses

With this tragic news just in, there are several important things to say about the drug overdose situation in this country.

The first is this: It is important that we don’t talk about the more than 107,000 overdose deaths in the United States last year like it’s just a statistic.

These are people’s lives that ended, people like you and me. People with friends and loved ones who cared about them, and who wanted them to succeed.

Evidence of an ongoing tragedy

This is where we are with the continuing drug epidemic, according to the recently released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data from 2023:

• 107,543 people died from drug overdose deaths compared to 111,029 in 2022. That is a 3 percent decline.
• 2023 witnessed the first annual decrease in five years (since 2018).
• Indiana, Kansas, Maine, and Nebraska each saw overdose deaths decrease by at least 15 percent. Note: We need to determine what’s working in those states, and replicate it elsewhere.
• Alaska, Oregon, and Washington each saw overdose deaths increase by at least 27 percent. Note: We need to determine what’s not working in those states, and figure out solutions including by sharing best practices from states with lower overdose rates.)
• While overdoses from fentanyl (the main driver of drug deaths) went down in 2023, overdoses from cocaine and methamphetamine went up.

3 developments that are helping to reduce deaths

1. Greater availability of Narcan: I’m a huge advocate for this overdose reversal drug, which is naloxone in nasal spray form. I have argued often that it should be as ubiquitous as the red-boxed automated external defibrillators (AEDs) you now see in malls, hotel lobbies, schools, airports, and workplaces.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took a big and meaningful step in that direction when it approved Narcan for over-the-counter use in March 2023. I have no doubt the increased availability of Narcan has helped bring the overdose numbers down, since Narcan targets opioids like fentanyl and heroin.

2. The stepping up of harm-reduction efforts: Harm reduction means reducing the health and safety dangers around drug use. The goal is to save lives and protect the health of people who use drugs through such measures as fentanyl test strips, overdose prevention sites, and sterilized injection equipment and services.

Harm reduction was a key plank of the White House’s 2022 National Drug Control Strategy aimed directly at the overdose epidemic. Countless harm-reduction efforts have gained traction at the local and state level as well. Again, this continued push may have helped bring down the overdose numbers last year.

3. Increased efforts around law enforcement drug seizures: Of the 107,543 people who overdosed in 2023, 74,702 (70 percent) of them did so after using the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is many times more potent than heroin. For the first time in years, that number of deaths was lower than the year before.

Why? No doubt in part because 115 million pills containing fentanyl were seized by law enforcement in 2023. That compared to 71 million fentanyl-laced pills seized in 2022. These seizure efforts seem to be working, and they need to be stepped up even more.

Drug use prevention efforts must increase also

Ultimately, the best way to save lives, end the opioid epidemic, and halt the spread of substance use disorder is to stop people from becoming addicted in the first place.

The big news: Statistics show that drug use may be trending down among young people. Even delaying the onset of addiction can change the trajectory of the problem, says Nora Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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When asked recently about the lower number of overdose deaths last year, Volkow said: “Research has shown that delaying the start of substance use among young people, even by one year, can decrease substance use for the rest of their lives. We may be seeing this play out in real time [in 2023]. The trend is reassuring.”

Final thoughts on turning the tide of addiction

As the antismoking campaign that began in the 1960s showed us, massive and well-coordinated public health efforts can work.

Surgeon General warning labels, hard-hitting public service announcements, school-based programs—all of those had a cumulative effect on smoking habits in this country, especially among young people. Those efforts all targeted one thing: prevention.

We need to do much more of that in 2024 around opioids, methamphetamines, cocaine, and other lethal drugs. Lives depend on it.