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Fentanyl Deaths Dropped Sharply in 2024—What’s Behind It?

The U.S. drug czar says China is more cooperative recently in curbing the flow of precursor drugs while treatment programs and naloxone availability increases.
Fentanyl Deaths Dropped Sharply in 2024—What’s Behind It?
Packets of fentanyl mostly in powder form and methamphetamine, which U.S. Customs and Border Protection say they seized from a truck crossing into Arizona from Mexico, is on display during a news conference at the Port of Nogales, Ariz., on Jan. 31, 2019. U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Reuters
Darlene McCormick Sanchez
Darlene McCormick Sanchez
Senior Reporter
1/2/2025|Updated: 1/2/2025
0:00

Overdose deaths—with many tied to fentanyl—in the United States have dropped 17 percent in a one-year period ending in July 2024, according to recent statistics.

While experts can’t pinpoint the exact cause of the drop, Dr. Rahul Gupta, the Biden administration’s drug czar, believes several factors could be behind the decline.

Darlene McCormick Sanchez
Darlene McCormick Sanchez
Senior Reporter
Darlene McCormick Sanchez is an Epoch Times reporter who covers border security and immigration, election integrity, and Texas politics. Ms. McCormick Sanchez has 20 years of experience in media and has worked for outlets including Waco Tribune Herald, Tampa Tribune, and Waterbury Republican-American. She was a finalist for a Pulitzer prize for investigative reporting.
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