The Real Reason for the Drop in Fentanyl Overdoses

For two decades, the United States and Canada have struggled with a drug epidemic. From 2003 to 2022, annual overdose deaths in the United States rose from less than 26,000 to nearly 108,000—becoming the leading nonmedical cause of death, surpassing car accidents and gun violence combined. In Canada, overdose deaths increased almost tenfold in the same period. In both countries, the surge in deaths was supercharged by "synthetic" opioids such as fentanyl, the ultra-potent, lab-made narcotic that has come to dominate the supply of hard drugs.