Drug overdose deaths appear to be on the decline. According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), overdose deaths dropped by 22% from September 2023 to September 2024.
Experts attribute the decline to several factors, including increased awareness of the tainted drug supply, expanded access to the opioid reversal medication naloxone, and shifts in the drug market itself. In 2023, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) lab testing found that seven out of ten counterfeit pills contained a lethal dose of fentanyl. By 2024, that number had dropped to five out of ten.
Some drug policy experts suggest that xylazine—a powerful animal tranquilizer increasingly found in illicit drug supplies—may also be playing a role in reducing fentanyl deaths. As Emily’s Hope has previously reported, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has labeled the combination of fentanyl and xylazine an emerging threat to the U.S. While xylazine is not an opioid, its sedative effects can cause dangerous health complications, including overdoses, severe skin ulcers, and even limb amputations.
However, xylazine’s prolonged sedative effects may unintentionally reduce the frequency of fentanyl use. “You might not shoot another bag of fentanyl because you’re knocked out,” University of North Carolina researcher Colin Miller told The New York Times.
Stephen Murray, an overdose survivor who operates an overdose hotline at Boston Medical Center, added that xylazine alters the composition of street drugs. “It changes the portion of fentanyl in the sample,” he explained.
Research appears to support these observations. An analysis of more than 320 emergency department patients, published in the National Library of Medicine, found that fentanyl overdoses were less severe when xylazine was also detected.
Despite these findings, experts warn that xylazine is highly dangerous for human consumption. The DEA has repeatedly sounded the alarm on the drug’s growing presence, including in a report titled, “The Growing Threat of Xylazine and its Mixture with Illicit Drugs.”