We've been talking for so long about the opioid crisis growing progressively more lethal that I will confess I was taken by surprise when I started seeing headlines about declines in the rate of overdose deaths in this country.

It is true. The U.S. recorded a nearly 15% drop in the number of people who died of overdoses between the summer of 2023 and the summer of 2024 alone.

That is huge and it's great news, but it's not the only news. From KERA in Dallas,

this is Think. I'm Chris Boyd. The downward trend in overall deaths from overdoses is not happening

evenly across demographic groups. The reasons why are complex and disturbing, but perhaps

not insurmountable if we understand them and commit to

finding solutions. Maya Solvitz is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times,

which published her article, Not Everyone is benefiting from drops in overdose deaths.

Maya, welcome back to think.

Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm glad to be here.

I do want to start with the good news that overdose deaths seem to be declining in the United

States. When did this trend start to look like more than just a temporary aberration in the

statistics? Basically, this summer. And there are a number of possible contributors to this, right?

One relates to fentanyl.

Before we get into that, can you help us understand the difference between prescribed fentanyl and the version available on the street?

Sure.

So prescribed fentanyl is a pharmaceutical. You know exactly what the dose is. It's used every minute all over the world for anesthesia. It's an excellent drug that is very useful to medicine. And on the other hand, street fentanyl is manufactured by cartels or underground scientists, and there's very little quality control.

You don't know what the dose is.

You don't know what's in it.

It can vary from being a completely inert substance to something in which a couple of micrograms

could kill you.

Why would the fentanyl sold by drug dealers be less potent today than a few years ago?

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