U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths Fall 14% in 2025

U.S. drug overdose deaths fell 14 percent in 2025 from the prior year, according to preliminary government data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 70,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, roughly the same total recorded in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decline marks the third straight year of falling deaths and the longest successive drop in decades, according to federal data. Overdose deaths declined for fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine in 2025. The vast majority of states recorded fewer deaths, though seven states saw at least slight increases.

Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico each saw jumps of 10 percent or more. Overdose deaths had peaked at nearly 110,000 in 2022. Deaths began falling as the pandemic waned. Researchers have cited wider availability of naloxone, expanded treatment, shifts in drug-use patterns and settlement money from opioid lawsuits.

Brandon Marshall, a Brown University researcher who studies overdose trends, said he was cautiously optimistic. “I’m cautiously optimistic that this represents really a fundamental change in the arc of the overdose crisis,” Marshall said. He added that rapid declines can reverse just as quickly.

The Center for Forensic Science Research and Education identified 27 new drugs in all of 2025. In the first less-than-five months of 2026 the lab has already identified 23 new drugs, according to its director, Alex Krotulski. “The drug supply continues to change and evolve,” Krotulski said.

Among the substances on the lab’s radar is cychlorphine, a potent synthetic opioid up to 10 times stronger than fentanyl that is being used as a cutting agent added to other drugs without users’ knowledge.