Drug Overdose Deaths in the U.S.

The drug Suboxone, used to treat opiate addiction. Soberconnections, via Wikimedia Commons. Distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

The good news: Data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that drug overdose deaths have dropped for the first time since 1990. Between the 12-month period ending December 2017 and the 12-month period ending December 2018, there was a 5.1% decline in overdose deaths. Now the bad news: Experts still see worrisome signs in the data.

Read my latest story for IEEE Pulse magazine: Drug Overdose Deaths Decline, But Remain Historically High.