For the first time in decades, overdose deaths in the United States, which have cost more than a million lives, have started to decline.
National data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show roughly a 20 percent drop compared to the previous year. This breakthrough is in large part because of a push by the Biden administration for greater access to harm reduction and treatment services for people who use drugs. As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes up his position as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), he has an opportunity to build on this progress toward bringing the overdose crisis under control.
