Just two years ago, the US was suffering through the worst stretch of its long-running drug overdose crisis. More than 110,000 Americans had died in the previous 12 months from an overdose — almost twice the number of people who died in all of the Vietnam War.

But late last year, the country got some unexpected good news: Overdose fatalities had fallen by 10 percent. It was the first drop of any kind since 2018, but here’s the really good news: While in 2018, deaths only plateaued for a few months before rising again, the current decline appears to be sustaining and even accelerating. According to the most recent national data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deaths in 2024 were down a whopping 26 percent, to less than 81,000 over the preceding 12 months. New county-level CDC data reveal some communities in the states hit hardest by the opioid epidemic — such as West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Ohio — have seen deaths fall by 40 percent to 50 percent over the past year.

Too many people are still dying preventable deaths, but the decline nonetheless represents a significant improvement in a problem that has bedeviled public health officials since the opioid epidemic began to take off in the 2000s.

America appears to be turning the corner on drug-overdose deaths. How?

Nobody is quite sure — and several of the experts I spoke to fear the downturn could be temporary. But there are a few plausible explanations.

First, the pandemic is over. Overdose deaths

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