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May 15, 2024 – “There’s been a lot of billboards, newspaper ads and TV stuff surrounding naloxone — where it’s available, where people can get naloxone for free,” Zoucha said, referring to the opioid overdose reversal medication, which is also sold under the brand name Narcan. Drug overdose deaths decreased slightly last year, falling for the first time since 2018, early data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Wednesday shows. Still, overdose deaths remain extremely high.

More than 107,000 people died of a drug overdose in 2023, down from roughly 111,000 in 2022, the data showed. 

“More than 100,000 people died of overdoses in 2023. If you take a historical perspective, this is four times what it was 20 years ago,” said Magdalena Cerdá, director of the Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City.

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