Fatal drug overdoses in the United States declined for the first time in five years - but even with some progress, more than 100,000 people died from drug use for the third year in a row, the National Center for Health Statistics announced on Wednesday.
There was a roughly three percent decrease from 111,029 deaths in 2022 to 107,543 in 2023. The number includes anyone who was in the US at the time of their death, regardless of where they permanently reside.
The minor progress is seemingly the result of a confluence of factors - including the increased availability of Narcan, the medication that reverses opioid overdoses, and more awareness of the presence of fentanyl laced into other street drugs.
The president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, Dr. Brian Hurley, told the New York Times that last year's statistics constitute "the leveling of the overdose curve" while noting that "historically high" numbers of people are still dying.
"Universal access to addiction medications, when clinically appropriate, should be our minimum standard," he said.
Notably, opioid deaths have decreased by 3.7 percent, in the wake of increasing access to Narcan - but with no equivalent treatment available for stimulants, deaths from cocaine and methamphetamine increased.
Some experts also noted that the last time fatal overdoses decreased, in 2018, it was only a short term improvement before a rapid increase the following year.
"Any decline is encouraging," Brown University researcher told the Associated Press. "But I think it's certainly premature to celebrate or to draw any large-scale conclusions about where we may be headed long-term with this crisis."
