Fewer Overdose Deaths Reported in 2023, Preliminary CDC Data Reveals

(The National Desk) A glimmer of hope in the opioid crisis for the first time since the pandemic: The number of overdose deaths is dropping from record highs, according to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

About 107,500 people died of overdoses in the U.S. last year, including both American citizens and non-citizens who were in the country at the time they died, the CDC estimated. That’s down 3% from 2022 when there were an estimated 111,000 such deaths, the agency said.

"I think the preliminary numbers are encouraging but one death is too many," Amara Durham, founder of Urgent Care Mental Health said. "We know based on the number that education and awareness is making a difference we just have to make sure that difference is made from east to west."

Agency officials noted the data is provisional and could change after more analysis, but that they still expect a drop when the final counts are in. It would be only the second annual decline since the current national drug death epidemic began more than three decades ago.

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