Section

The Crisis, By the Numbers

Overdose data, SUD prevalence, CDC/NCHS updates, geographic trends.

Cocaine Didn't Get More Dangerous. Everything Mixed Into It Did.

The CDC's cocaine numbers read like a 1980s moral panic. They're actually a fentanyl story most cocaine users never signed up for — and this newsroom has barely covered it.

CDC data show cocaine-involved overdose deaths rose 85% from 2019 to 2023, driven almost entirely by fentanyl contamination in the stimulant supply — not cocaine itself.

Sep 123 minRead

More in The Crisis, By the Numbers

61 total in this section

02The Crisis, By the NumbersSep 10

Twelve People Bought Cocaine in Luzerne County This Summer. It Was Fentanyl.

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania issued a public warning after 12 overdose deaths in three months tied to cocaine contaminated with fentanyl — and officials say most victims had no idea an opioid was in the bag.

03The Crisis, By the NumbersSep 8

Overdose Deaths Are Falling Fast, and It Wasn't the Crackdown That Did It

U.S. overdose deaths just posted their sharpest sustained drop in decades. Here's the real cause list — naloxone, addiction medication, prison treatment — and the Arizona surge and federal funding cuts that could reverse it.

04The Crisis, By the NumbersSep 7

Overdose Deaths Fell 12.3%. The Government Is Cutting the Thing That Probably Did It.

CDC's new Overdose Prevention Data Channel shows 67,798 predicted overdose deaths in the year ending March 2026 — down 12.3%. The decline coincides with, not despite, harm reduction expansion.

05The Crisis, By the Numbers

The Country's Overdose Deaths Are Falling. Arizona's Are Climbing — and Washington Just Cut the One Thing Proven to Help.

Sep 58 min

06The Crisis, By the Numbers

Overdose Deaths Are Down 12%. That Is Not the Same As Fixed.

Sep 42 min

07The Crisis, By the Numbers

The CDC's New Overdose Dashboard Confirms the Decline Is Real. It Also Confirms It's Slowing.

Sep 22 min

The Log

Earlier in The Crisis, By the Numbers

Every piece in this section, most recent first.

The Crisis, By the Numbers

Cocaine Didn't Get More Dangerous. Everything Mixed Into It Did.

More in The Crisis, By the Numbers

Twelve People Bought Cocaine in Luzerne County This Summer. It Was Fentanyl.

Overdose Deaths Are Falling Fast, and It Wasn't the Crackdown That Did It

Overdose Deaths Fell 12.3%. The Government Is Cutting the Thing That Probably Did It.

The Country's Overdose Deaths Are Falling. Arizona's Are Climbing — and Washington Just Cut the One Thing Proven to Help.

Overdose Deaths Are Down 12%. That Is Not the Same As Fixed.

The CDC's New Overdose Dashboard Confirms the Decline Is Real. It Also Confirms It's Slowing.

Earlier in The Crisis, By the Numbers

Cocaine Isn't Killing People Anymore. Fentanyl Riding Inside It Is

Overdose Deaths Are Falling Fast — Because the Supply Broke, Not Because We Fixed Anything

The Overdose Numbers Are Dropping. Believe the Drug Supply Got More Dangerous Anyway

Every Time a State Schedules One Sedative, the Drug Supply Finds Another. Medetomidine Is What's Next.

A Flavored Canister Is Killing More People Every Year, and the Law Is Only Now Catching Up

The Overdose Numbers Are Finally Falling. Washington Just Defunded the Reason Why.

The FDA Approved Four More Nicotine Pouches This Week. Teen Use Already Nearly Quadrupled Without Them.

SAMHSA Released Its Addiction Survey Earlier Than Ever. The Number That Matters Isn't the Headline One.

One in Four Bags of Cocaine Now Carries Fentanyl. There's Still No Medicine for What's Underneath It.

In Phoenix, July Doesn't Just Feel Deadlier for Meth Use. The Numbers Say It Actually Is.

More Americans Now Smoke Weed Every Day Than Drink Every Day. That's Not the Same as a Win.

A Cocaine Batch Laced With Fentanyl Just Killed Someone on the Wisconsin-Michigan Border. It Won't Stay There.

Alcohol Sales Keep Sliding. Stop Reading That as a Recovery Win.

Cocaine Production Just Hit a Record High. It's Not Coming Alone Anymore.

Cocaine Just Passed Fentanyl as Cuyahoga County's Top Overdose Killer. That's Not the Relief It Sounds Like.

The Government Is Taking a Victory Lap on Fentanyl. A Drug Naloxone Can't Touch Just Reached Utah.

The DEA Is Throwing a Party for Beating Fentanyl. The Chemists Already Moved On.

Cocaine Is Cheaper and Purer Than It's Been in Decades. That's the Bad News.

Half of 8th Graders Don't Think Trying Fentanyl Once Is Dangerous. That's Not a Knowledge Gap, It's a Body Count

The DEA Just Scheduled a New Synthetic Opioid Your Fentanyl Test Strip Can't See

Cocaine Killed More People Than Ever Last Year. There Still Isn't a Pill for It.

Naloxone Doesn't Touch It: A Veterinary Sedative Is Quietly Taking Over Where Xylazine Left Off

Naloxone Can't Touch Medetomidine — and Federal Guidance Just Defunded the Strips That Would Warn You

The Country Is Winning the Overdose Fight. Arizona Is Losing It — and July Is When That Gets Worse.

The Border Fight Is a Distraction From the Real Fentanyl Story

Overdose Deaths Fell 26% in One Year. Researchers Say the Reason Isn't What the Headlines Claim.

America Is Celebrating a 13% Drop in Overdoses. The UN Just Counted 331 Million People Using Drugs Worldwide.

38% Fewer Overdose Deaths Than the Peak. The System That Caused Them Hasn't Changed.

The Overdose Numbers Fell 13%. Don't Mistake the Decline for Victory.

Carfentanil Is Back in the Drug Supply. More Than 1 in 10 Fentanyl Samples Now Test Positive.

FDA Gave ZYN Twenty Flavors in January. Teen Nicotine Addiction Is Getting Worse.

The Decline That Isn't Reaching Everyone

The Shape-Shifter: How Nitazenes Became America's Next Synthetic Opioid Wave

The Drug That Kills Kids Without Warning, and Why Almost Nobody Covers It

The Fourth Wave Breaks — and Tells Us Exactly Who Was Left Behind

The Numbers Are Good. The Explanation Is Contested.

The Decline Is Real. The Reason Should Unsettle Everyone.

Overdose Deaths Fell 14 Percent in 2025. The Decline Is Already Slowing.

Overdose Deaths Fell Everywhere. Cocaine Didn't Get the Memo.

The Overdose Decline Is Real. The People Still Dying Are Increasingly Black, Indigenous, and Killed by Stimulants.

The Rest of the Country Is Celebrating. In Maricopa County, People Are Still Dying.

Cocaine Killed 29,449 People in 2023. There's Still No Medication For It.

The Stimulant Treatment Gap: NIDA 2026 Update on a Crisis With No Approved Cure

DEA Warns: Fentanyl Now Mixed With Medetomidine and Nitazenes in Midwest Supply

Federal Public-Health Alert: Fentanyl Is Now Commonly Cut with Xylazine, Medetomidine, Cychlorphine, and Nitazenes

The Day America Got Better and Arizona Got Worse: Reading the 2025 Overdose Data

America's Overdose Decline Is Real. Arizona Is the Exception.

Medetomidine Is Now in More Than a Third of Philadelphia's Opioid Samples

FDA Spotlights the 'Synthetic Soup': Why the Drug Supply Is Outrunning Naloxone

When Narcan isn't enough: what the CDC's medetomidine advisory means for Arizona

The Treatment Gap: Why Only 1 in 7 Americans with SUD Get Help

Alcohol: America's Quieter Epidemic

Fentanyl, Still Driving Overdose Deaths in 2026