Approximately 70,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2025, a 14 percent decline from the previous year, federal data released Wednesday indicate. The drop marks the third consecutive annual decrease and brings the national mortality total to roughly 2019 levels, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
U.S. overdose deaths had risen for decades before peaking at nearly 110,000 in 2022. Researchers tied the pandemic-era surge to social isolation and disrupted access to addiction treatment. The subsequent three-year decline followed as pandemic restrictions eased and public health interventions expanded.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that this represents really a fundamental change in the arc of the overdose crisis,” said Brandon Marshall, a Brown University researcher who studies overdose trends.
Marshall cautioned that the decline could quickly reverse if prevention momentum stalls. “If deaths are going down rapidly, that means they can increase just as rapidly if we take our foot off the gas,” he said.
Deaths fell across the vast majority of states, with declines recorded in fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine categories. Seven states saw at least slight increases, including jumps of 10 percent or more in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. Marshall suggested the increases in those states could stem from recent combined use of fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Health and law enforcement officials have raised alarms about newly detected substances in the illicit supply. Alex Krotulski, director of the Center for Forensic Science Research and Education in Horsham, Pennsylvania, said his federally funded toxicology lab identified 27 new drugs in all of 2025. Less than five months into 2026, the lab has already identified 23 new substances.
Among the emerging compounds is cychlorphine, a potent synthetic opioid that experts describe as up to 10 times stronger than fentanyl. Cychlorphine is increasingly being used as an unannounced cutting agent in other illicit drugs. “The drug supply continues to change and evolve,” Krotulski said.
Concurrent with the data release, the Trump administration has moved to scale back several harm-reduction programs. In a letter last month, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration notified grant recipients that the government will no longer fund test strips and kits used to detect lethal additives in drugs. Officials indicated a broader shift away from services that facilitate illicit drug use, including clean syringe programs and monitoring hotlines.
Last week, a group of women who lost children to overdoses spoke to reporters to protest policies that emphasize punishment and incarceration over public health interventions. Kimberly Douglas, who founded Black Moms Against Overdose after her 17-year-old son died, attributed the recent progress to targeted services.
“We are starting to see overdoses go down in some places and that’s because of harm reduction,” Douglas said.
Researchers have cited multiple factors likely driving the national decline. Expanded availability of naloxone, broader addiction treatment access, and billions of dollars from opioid lawsuit settlements are credited by health officials. Some evidence suggests the pool of people likely to overdose may be shrinking as youth initiation declines, while other theories point to regulatory changes in China that have reduced the availability of fentanyl precursor chemicals.