>”What we’re seeing is a massive reduction in [fatal] overdose risk, among Gen Z in particular,” said Nabarun Dasgupta, an addiction researcher at the University of North Carolina. “Ages 20 to 29 lowered the risk by 47%, cut it right in half.”
>This stunning drop in drug deaths among people in the U.S. is being tracked in data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies.
>The latest available records found fentanyl and other drugs killed more than 31,000 people (see chart) under the age of 35 in 2021. By last year, that number had plummeted to roughly 16,690 fatal overdoses, according to provisional CDC data.
>Many U.S. kids appear more cautious about drug use
>Theories include the wider distribution of Narcan, or naloxone; a trend of weaker, less deadly fentanyl being sold by dealers; more readily available addiction healthcare; and also the loss of so many vulnerable young people who have already died.
>Many researchers believe another key factor may be less risky drug and alcohol use among teens and twenty-somethings, a pattern that emerged during the years of the COVID epidemic. One study by a team at the University of Michigan found the number of teens abstaining from substance grew to its highest level in 2024.
>”This trend in the reduction of substance use among teenagers is unprecedented,” Nora D. Volkow, who has served as director of the U.S. government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse since 2003, said in a statement last December.
>Keith Humphreys, an addiction researcher at Stanford University, credits this apparent behavioral shift with helping save lives. “There’s fewer people initiating with these substances. That should work in our favor,” he told NPR.
>According to Dasgupta at the University of North Carolina, years of devastation caused by fentanyl and other opioids might mean more people in their teens and twenties are choosing to experiment with less risky drugs.
>”Alcohol and opioids are on the outs with Gen Z, and instead we see [a shift to] cannabis and psychedelics, and those are inherently safer drugs,” he said.
>Overall, this positive trend among younger Americans is outpacing the wider opioid recovery in the U.S., which saw 27% fewer fatal overdoses across all age groups in 2024.
>While this news is promising — roughly 15,000 fewer drug deaths among young people in the U.S. in 2024, according to preliminary data, compared with the deadliest year 2021 — researchers say sustaining progress may be difficult.
>That’s because many of the young people still most at risk, like Justin Carlyle in Philadelphia, aren’t just experimenting with drugs. They’re struggling with full blown addiction.
>”What I’m used to is getting high, you know?” he said.
>Despite the danger of a fatal overdose, Carlyle told NPR he has tried to quit fentanyl repeatedly, even using the medication suboxone to to try to curb his opioid cravings, so far without success.
>”I wish I had the answer to that. I know all of us fighting addiction right now wish we had the answer,” he said.
>But many experts, activists and front-line healthcare workers say there’s more hope on the streets, too. The spread of Narcan is helping. Researchers studying street drugs say the fentanyl being sold by dealers in the U.S. is less potent, less deadly, than it once was.
>That matters because studies show people who survive addiction long enough do typically recover.
>There are also growing efforts around the U.S. aimed at reaching young people experiencing severe addiction, programs that ramped up over the past four years with federal funding from the Biden administration.
>On a recent afternoon, two city drug response workers in Philadelphia, Kevin Howard and Dominick Maurizio, offered counseling to a young man huddled in a bus shelter.
>”Anything we can help you with? Want to go in-patient?” Howard said. “Want to go to a shelter?”
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>”What we’re seeing is a massive reduction in [fatal] overdose risk, among Gen Z in particular,” said Nabarun Dasgupta, an addiction researcher at the University of North Carolina. “Ages 20 to 29 lowered the risk by 47%, cut it right in half.”
>This stunning drop in drug deaths among people in the U.S. is being tracked in data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies.
>The latest available records found fentanyl and other drugs killed more than 31,000 people (see chart) under the age of 35 in 2021. By last year, that number had plummeted to roughly 16,690 fatal overdoses, according to provisional CDC data.
>Many U.S. kids appear more cautious about drug use
>Theories include the wider distribution of Narcan, or naloxone; a trend of weaker, less deadly fentanyl being sold by dealers; more readily available addiction healthcare; and also the loss of so many vulnerable young people who have already died.
>Many researchers believe another key factor may be less risky drug and alcohol use among teens and twenty-somethings, a pattern that emerged during the years of the COVID epidemic. One study by a team at the University of Michigan found the number of teens abstaining from substance grew to its highest level in 2024.
>”This trend in the reduction of substance use among teenagers is unprecedented,” Nora D. Volkow, who has served as director of the U.S. government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse since 2003, said in a statement last December.
>Keith Humphreys, an addiction researcher at Stanford University, credits this apparent behavioral shift with helping save lives. “There’s fewer people initiating with these substances. That should work in our favor,” he told NPR.
>According to Dasgupta at the University of North Carolina, years of devastation caused by fentanyl and other opioids might mean more people in their teens and twenties are choosing to experiment with less risky drugs.
>”Alcohol and opioids are on the outs with Gen Z, and instead we see [a shift to] cannabis and psychedelics, and those are inherently safer drugs,” he said.
>Overall, this positive trend among younger Americans is outpacing the wider opioid recovery in the U.S., which saw 27% fewer fatal overdoses across all age groups in 2024.
>While this news is promising — roughly 15,000 fewer drug deaths among young people in the U.S. in 2024, according to preliminary data, compared with the deadliest year 2021 — researchers say sustaining progress may be difficult.
>That’s because many of the young people still most at risk, like Justin Carlyle in Philadelphia, aren’t just experimenting with drugs. They’re struggling with full blown addiction.
>”What I’m used to is getting high, you know?” he said.
>Despite the danger of a fatal overdose, Carlyle told NPR he has tried to quit fentanyl repeatedly, even using the medication suboxone to to try to curb his opioid cravings, so far without success.
>”I wish I had the answer to that. I know all of us fighting addiction right now wish we had the answer,” he said.
>But many experts, activists and front-line healthcare workers say there’s more hope on the streets, too. The spread of Narcan is helping. Researchers studying street drugs say the fentanyl being sold by dealers in the U.S. is less potent, less deadly, than it once was.
>That matters because studies show people who survive addiction long enough do typically recover.
>There are also growing efforts around the U.S. aimed at reaching young people experiencing severe addiction, programs that ramped up over the past four years with federal funding from the Biden administration.
>On a recent afternoon, two city drug response workers in Philadelphia, Kevin Howard and Dominick Maurizio, offered counseling to a young man huddled in a bus shelter.
>”Anything we can help you with? Want to go in-patient?” Howard said. “Want to go to a shelter?”