Fentanyl Deaths Are Dropping — And Here's Why That's Actually Happening

PJ Media ^ | 01/13/2026 | Stephen Green

[SeekAndFind]

"An insanely powerful and addictive opioid responsible for the deaths of half a million Americans" and "good news" hardly go hand in hand. And yet some good news about fentanyl is exactly what I have for you today.

No, I'm not here to tell you that prices are down and availability is up — not even my sense of humor runs quite that grim. Besides, I wouldn't know. Fentanyl pricing and availability aren't exactly the kind of neighborhood news I look for on Nextdoor, and my only "dealer" is the clerk behind the cash register at my corner liquor store.

But how about this: Fentanyl deaths are plummeting in the U.S.

Good news, right?

Don't get me wrong — we're hardly out of the woods on this one. As recently as 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported around 3,105 synthetic opioid-involved overdose deaths. Each needless death like that remains, well, needless, but then fentanyl hit the scene — cheap to manufacture, easy to cut into "safer" drugs for increased illicit profits — and the numbers went through the stratosphere.

By 2019, synthetic-opioid deaths skyrocketed to just over 36,000. If I've done my math correctly (OK, if Grok did my math correctly), that's an increase of more than 1,000%. Then in 2020, America suffered a years-long COVID-19 lockdown mental health/mental wellness crisis, and synthetic opioid deaths (mostly but not exclusively fentanyl) doubled yet again to 73,838 in 2022, according to the CDC.

Deaths declined in 2023, if barely, to 72,776.

Since 2024, however, the downward trend has accelerated. CDC reported around 54,000 fentanyl deaths in 2024, and early estimates indicate the number could be as low as 45,000-50,000 for 2025. Those numbers are still much too high, but they still represent an encouraging trendline.

[SeekAndFind]

Various reports credit a couple of different causes for the big declines, but there's another element that hasn't been discussed — one I'll come back to momentarily. 

Much as I hate to credit the Biden administration for anything other than multitrillion-dollar theft, a humiliating foreign policy, and a crippling economic policy, Psypost reported last week on a Science study claiming that "regulatory actions taken by the Chinese government, following high-level diplomatic engagement with the Biden administration, may be the primary driver behind."

Yes, Communist China produces the chemical precursors to fentanyl that then somehow mysteriously find their way to Latin American cartels (typically in Mexico) for final assembly and smuggling into the U.S. President Donald Trump doubled down on that policy late last year:

President Donald Trump has banned chemicals used as precursors to manufacture fentanyl, and China has agreed to control seven subsidiaries used to produce the lethal drug, FBI Director Kash Patel said Wednesday.

Opening the White House press briefing, Patel called the agreement between the U.S. and China a "historic, first-of-its-kind achievement" that effectively "shut off the pipeline that creates fentanyl."

Patel credited "Trump's direct engagement with Chinese President Xi Jinping and a months-long, whole-of-government push led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and U.S. Ambassador David Perdue."

[SaveFerris]

(Fentanyl Deaths Are Dropping —
And Here’s Why That’s Actually Happening)

Drug Mules Blowed Up Real Good?

[Larry Lucido]

You’re impuning a continent!

[Secret Agent Man]

Not trying to impugn

Just insinuating. :)

[Jonty30]

Those most prone to addiction and death by fetanyl have been weeded out of society, leaving the remnant a little more adapted?

[House Atreides]

“ Those most prone to addiction and death by fetanyl have been weeded out of society, leaving the remnant a little more adapted?”
*********************************************************

That may well be one contributing reason. The “fear of God” (and of the likelihood of death) scaring users away could be another part.

[SaveFerris]

Who goes to South America??!!

They come back with things
taped to their Large Intestine! 🤣🤣🤣

https://youtube.com/shorts/PTbBL3vON18?si=67i1YlZjZ3Oxxa-L

[TigersEye]

Cutting illegal crossings of the Mexican border 90%, give or take 5%, might also be a contributing factor.

[House Atreides]

Yep, it’s a multi front war.

[PeterPrinciple]

Lower potency = fewer deaths.
–-————
From article

[nickcarraway]

Aren’t all overdoses dropping?

[Polanski]

Crime is generally down pretty well. Murders too, but you’d never know it from how the media vilifies the entire notion of a lawful and orderly society.

There’s just a ton of chaotic evil people (mostly women millennials and boomers) that want the world to burn all around them.

[FLT-bird]

Its amazing. When you track down and deport 600,000 violent criminals, the murder rate goes down.