In the summer of 2020, Ohio medical examiner Anahi Ortiz was receiving more bodies than her office could process. The cause of death wasn’t COVID-19; it was drug overdoses. Over just 36 hours, Ortiz’s small office handled nine fatal overdoses at one point.

“We’ve literally run out of wheeled carts to put them on,” Ortiz told the Washington Post.

The fatalities were part of a year that saw 92,478 deaths from overdoses nationwide, a record at the time and a 30% increase from the preceding 12-month period. The drug overdose epidemic only got worse from there. Deaths rose from 107,573 in 2021 to 109,413 in 2022. By summer 2023, they hit a record 111,466 — up 50% from 2019.

Even prior to the pandemic surge, public health officials were calling the opioid epidemic the “most serious public health crisis” in America. These declarations were not mere hyperbole. As the New York Times reported, drug overdoses surged to account for more American deaths than guns and automobile accidents combined.

Fortunately, after decades of bad news on drug overdoses, there’s some good news. Earlier this week, Axios

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