Overdose deaths fall for 3rd straight year, CDC data shows

HealthWatch Overdose deaths fall for 3rd straight year amid a changing drug supply and funding cuts .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-healthwatch.jpg'); } May 13, 2026 / 12:13 PM EDT / CBS/AP Add CBS News on Google About 70,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year — 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."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.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 — including government policy changes or a shift in the drug supply, Marshall and other researchers say."If deaths are going down rapidly, that means they can increase just as rapidly if we take our foot off the gas," Marshall said. Overdoses rose during the height of the pandemicU.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-...