We’ve finally slowed the surge in overdose deaths. The Trump admin may undo all of it

The Division of Overdose Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on May 14, 2025, that there was a 27% decrease in overdose deaths in 2024. This announcement was remarkable, even historic, considering that overdoses had been on the rise for over 33 years, killing over a million Americans, and another million were expected to die before the end of this decade. Overdose deaths have been declining every month for over a year, with the biggest declines occurring in deaths from illicit fentanyl, which is thought to be the most difficult issue due to its high potency, ease of manufacture, and ease of smuggling.

The new Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. made no mention of the recent success or overdoses, the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 44, in testimony before Washington. A week later, the word “opioid” was not used once in his agency’s 72-page “Making America Healthy Again” manifesto. He then suggested that the CDC and the other key organizations in charge of dealing with the overdose crisis be disbanded. These bills, which were included in the administration’s budget for the fiscal year 2026, passed the House and are pending Senate action.

I worked as a scientist at the CDC for almost thirty years. I have been vocally critical of the way the CDC and those other agencies have handled the opioid crisis, but destroying the institutions that protect us is not the answer, especially at a time when we appear to be making progress. What will happen? It is obvious that a health secretary who consistently disregards the primary cause of death for adult Americans is not interested in conducting research on potential causes of a decline in mortality.

The drive to make naloxone (marketed under the name Narcan) more widely available has, however, undoubtedly contributed to recent national initiatives. Retail pharmacies doubled their naloxone dosages between 2021 and 2023, and harm reduction organizations also provided millions of additional doses. The Food and Drug Administration then authorized the over-the-counter sale of a nasal spray version in March 2023.

I have publicly criticized the way the CDC and those other agencies have responded to the opioid crisis, but attacking the organizations that keep us safe is not the answer.

Twenty million doses had been administered by the year’s end. The month following the nasal spray’s general release, the number of overdose deaths began to drop. Although temporal sequence is not causality, mass distribution of an antidote that is simple for laypeople to administer is a tenable step in a public health emergency. It costs $25 to save a life in ten seconds, which is more cost-effective than most medical interventions.

Not long after taking command of the U.S. A. Kennedy demanded an immediate cut in naloxone funding for the health care system in February 2025. And he continued after that. The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute for Drug Abuse research team, which contributed to the creation of the nasal form of naloxone, is slated to be abolished. To provide early warning of new illegal drugs, NIDA is currently developing wastewater detection systems and investigating opioid analgesics with a lower risk of addiction. Together with other shattered institutes, what remains of NIDA will be combined into a single organization centered on “behavioral health.”. “”.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which supplies the majority of the funding for drug treatment and naloxone distribution programs at the state and local levels, is also on the chopping block. Despite recently reporting an unprecedented decrease in overdose deaths, the CDC’s Division of Overdose Prevention, which is in charge of keeping an eye on the drug epidemic, is also listed for demolition. The CDC warned that the number of overdoses from illegal carfentanil, an opioid 100 times more powerful than fentanyl and so strong that it is used to sedate elephants, has increased sevenfold, raising the possibility of another overdose explosion. Even small doses of this drug can be fatal. CDC’s Division of Overdose Prevention and SAMHSA’s remnants will be merged into the new “Agency for Healthy America.”. The federal budget would be cut by a tenth of one percent, which is significantly less than the cost of one aircraft carrier, even if we assume that all three of the drug control groups’ budgets are eliminated.

These changes should be implemented in a way that ensures the federal workforce will “be traumatically affected” and “viewed as the villains,” according to Russell Vought, the organization’s new director. In his 2024 documentary, Kennedy, who credits 12-step abstinence for his heroin recovery, stated unequivocally that “we’re going to build hundreds of healing farms”—locations where addicts “learn the discipline of hard work” and “get re-parented” while simultaneously introducing “a new industry to these forgotten corners of America.” What should the few surviving traumatically affected villains do about the drug crisis? At best, prevention, treatment, and antidotes are pointless; moral hazard is more likely.

In public health, the first lesson you learn is that every victory is fleeting. The CDC team I worked for showed in 2000 that measles, the most contagious disease known to man, had been eradicated from the United States. A. owing to the diligent efforts made nationwide to increase vaccination rates. More than 1,000 cases of measles have been reported in 30 states in the first five months of this year, a quarter-century later, as a result of decreased vaccination rates brought on by a barrage of false information about vaccines spread by Kennedy and others.