From Newsgroup: alt.law-enforcement

Drug overdose deaths drop 14%, comparable to before pandemic

By MIKE STOBBE The Associated Press

NEW YORK rCo About 70,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year rCo
about 14% fewer than the previous year, according to preliminary
government data.

It was the third straight annual drop, making it the longest decline in decades, according to federal data released Wednesday. The 2025 total is
about the same as the tally in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Declines were seen across a number of drug types, including fentanyl,
cocaine and methamphetamine. Overdose deaths fell in the vast majority
of states, although seven saw at least slight increases, including jumps
of 10% or more in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, the preliminary data
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed.

rCLIrCOm cautiously optimistic that this represents really a fundamental change in the arc of the overdose crisis,rCY said Brandon Marshall, a
Brown University researcher who studies overdose trends.

But the number of Americans dying from overdoses is still high, and
deaths declined at a slower pace last year. A number of things could
cause deaths to rise again rCo including government policy changes or a
shift in the drug supply, Marshall and other researchers say.

rCLIf deaths are going down rapidly, that means they can increase just as rapidly if we take our foot off the gas,rCY Marshall said.

U.S. overdose deaths were generally rising for decades, but they shot up dramatically during the pandemic, peaking at nearly 110,000 in 2022. The pandemic spike was associated with social isolation and difficulties
accessing addiction treatment.

Deaths declined as the pandemic waned. Researchers have pointed to
numerous possible factors: an increase in the availability of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, expanded addiction treatment, shifts
in how people use drugs, and the growing impact of billions of dollars
in opioid lawsuit settlement money.

Some research also suggests the number of people likely to overdose has
been shrinking, as fewer teens take up drugs and many illicit-drug users
have died. Another theory suggests regulatory changes in China a few
years ago appear to have diminished the availability of precursor
chemicals used to make fentanyl.

The nationrCOs decadeslong overdose epidemic has played out at different
paces in different parts of the country, due at least in part to
differences in the illicit drug supply and what people are using. The
death increases last year in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico could stem
from more combined use of fentanyl and methamphetamine recently in those places, Marshall guessed.
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