For the first time since 2018, the United States has seen a decrease in drug overdose deaths. The Center for Disease Control officials saw a nearly 15 percent drop in deaths from June 2023 through June 2024.

Experts are unsure as to what is causing the decline, which saw deaths decrease by some 14% between June 2023 and 2024.

Overdose deaths declined for the second year in a row, fanning health experts’ hopes that the opioid crisis could be turning around.

Drug overdose deaths involving benzodiazepines steadily increased from 1,135 in 1999 to 11,537 in 2017 followed by a decline to 9,711 deaths in 2019. Between 2019 and 2021, deaths rose again to 12,499. In 2022, the number of drug overdose deaths involving benzodiazepines declined to 10,964 (Source: CDC WONDER).

The decline in U.S. drug overdose deaths appears to have continued this year, giving experts hope the nation is seeing sustained improvement in the persistent epidemic.There were about 97,000 overdose deaths in the 12-month period that ended June 30,

As drug experts parse the data trying to understand the factors that could contribute to a sudden drop in overdose deaths, harm reductionists in western North Carolina work to stave off a possible spike in overdoses after the destruction brought by Hurricane Helene.