ARKANSAS, USA — For the first time in five years, overdose deaths in the United States have dropped.
According to the CDC, the number fell in 2023 and we have been seeing a similar trend here in Arkansas.
"My first reaction was, that's good but you know, we can't see these numbers decrease and think we're out of the woods," said Staci James with Hope Movement Coalition.
While the numbers show a step in the right direction in battling the ongoing drug death epidemic, James said this is not the time to let our guard down.
In 2019, she lost her own son to fentanyl poisoning.
"[When] you lose a child, you want to learn everything you can about what killed them," James explained.
She said that's what drives her passion to spread awareness and she does it through Hope Movement Coalition, a group dedicated to supporting families with similar experiences.
"We advocate, we want to get the word out about fentanyl. We want to be voices against stigma," James described.
Even though the data is provisional and could still change, according to the CDC, in 2023, there were an estimated 107, 543 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. which is about 3% lower than in 2022.
Arkansas has also seen a decrease in overdose deaths of about 13% from 2022 to 2023.
"Most Arkansans now realize that it's affecting their families and that they're dealing with it as a disease and not a moral failing," said Kirk Lane with the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership.
Lane said that could be the reason why we've seen fewer overdose deaths, but it involves more than just a mindset shift.
"For a long time, we put a square peg in a round hole. We kept doing the same thing. Now we're starting to expand that to cover those rural areas. And I think that's really important," Lane added.
Even though it's a positive trend, Lane and James agree there is still a lot more work to do.
"It's gonna take a team effort. I mean, it's a problem that we created, and only we collectively can solve it. So you have to defeat the stigma, and you have to believe that people can recover," Lane said.
"We can't get complacent and think, Oh, well, everything we're doing is working. I think for me personally, it just added more fuel to my fire, to do more, to be louder, and to do everything that I can to be a part of the solution," James explained.
According to the CDC, Arkansas has the sixth largest percentage decrease in overdose deaths in the country, behind Indiana, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina, and Nebraska.
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