Drug overdose deaths down in U.S. and Ohio, new data shows

Illicit drug overdoses and the deaths they cause are trending down this year, despite spikes in a handful of states, according to a Stateline analysis of data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Source: “The ‘hard, slow work’ of reducing overdose deaths is having an effect,” Ohio Capital Journal, Nov. 4).
 
A more timely indicator of overdoses — nonfatal suspected overdose patients in hospital emergency departments — was down 7% this year through August compared with 2024, according to Stateline’s analysis of CDC statistics.
 
In Ohio, the monthly rate of nonfatal overdose ED visits dropped from 62.7 in August 2023 to 41.1 in August 2025, the most recent month for which data is available.
 
As of April, deaths nationally were at 76,500 for the previous 12 months — their lowest level since March 2020. A pandemic spike in overdose deaths drove the number as high as almost 113,000 in the summer of 2023, according to federal statistics.