From Fox News: Drug overdose deaths in the United States fell by more than 20% last year, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on the country’s porous borders.
“The fall begins at the end of the Biden administration, but the question is, was it in anticipation of a tough-on-crime president coming in?” said Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct criminal justice professor at Penn State Lehigh Valley.
According to the data, which looked at deaths through August 2025, they were on the rise going into Trump’s first term but remained largely flat, then they spiked and plateaued when President Joe Biden took office.
While the CDC did not provide a reason for the decline, it coincides with stronger border enforcement.
The report lists several states whose drug overdose deaths have dropped by more than 30%, including Louisiana, Florida, Virginia, New York, Vermont, Wyoming and the District of Columbia.
Four states were listed as seeing little difference or a slight increase: North Dakota remained flat. Kansas and Hawaii both saw increases in deaths of less than 2%. New Mexico rose by about 3.5%.
However, overdose deaths in Arizona have skyrocketed from August 2024 to August 2025, by a whopping 17.75%. The report notes that in 2023, it was revealed that fentanyl overdose deaths in Maricopa County were occurring at a rate of 3 people per DAY.
CLICK HERE to view the full report by the CDC.
#STATOFTHEDAY Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. decreased 20.6% during the one-year period ending in August 2025 https://t.co/twaAZEPzvD pic.twitter.com/swINj238Nq
— NCHS (@NCHStats) January 14, 2026
US drug overdose deaths and attempted illegal border crossings have tracked closely since 2016.
The turnaround since 2024 is striking: overdoses are down sharply, while border encounters are at historic lows.
As a forensic psychiatrist, I have witnessed the shocking harm of the… pic.twitter.com/6DZ9STTR3S
— Nicolas Badre (@BadreNicolas) January 15, 2026
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