ATLANTA — On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data showing a decrease in drug overdoses over a 12-month period through December 2023.
CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Deb Houry said the decrease is a "testament to the hard work by all of our partners in this effort and the work being done on the ground."
The data shows, more than 100,000 people lost their life to a drug overdose last year, but that number is down by 3.1% from the year before. Georgia saw a nearly 6% decrease in overdose deaths last year, outpacing the nation's decline.
The director of Georgia Overdose Prevention, Andy Gish, has spent the last decade working on prevention, services, and harm reduction. Her team has helped made naloxone -- a medicine approved by the Food and Drug Administration that helps reverse opioid overdoses -- more widely available by installing distribution boxes throughout the state.
While the news about the downward trend is something to feel accomplished about, Gisha added that now is not the time to relax.
“The game changes constantly," she said. "Just because there’s a decrease this year, doesn’t mean that there’s still not work to be done."
Gish added that this is the first decrease in overdose deaths she's seen since before the pandemic.
“I’ve been doing this work for 10 years, and back then we lost 43,000 a year, and I think I was naïve to think those numbers would steady or decrease. And each year, I’ve seen them increase and increase," she described. "The only time I saw them a decrease was in 2011."
While the decline is encouraging, advocates like Gish said there's still a lot of work to be done surrounding stigma.
“I think there’s still a lot of fear relating to calling for help, and I just want people to know that it’s okay to call," Gish said.
This past February marked two years since the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched its Overdose Prevention Strategy, which built upon President Biden’s National Drug Control Strategy and his Unity Agenda call-to-action to address the overdose epidemic.