Donate
Menu

Prevent Overdose Deaths

The overdose crisis is a public health emergency. The Drug Policy Alliance is advocating for a public health approach to drugs that can prevent overdose deaths and save lives.

“ I lost my son, my only child, Jeff, to an overdose. Criminalization didn’t save him. Punitive drug laws have resulted in more imprisonment, more deaths, and more devastated families. We need health-based solutions to save our loved ones.”

Denise Cullen

MSW, Co-Founder, Broken No More

Solutions

To Prevent Overdose Deaths:

  • Invest in addiction services.

    A full range of addiction services—including counseling, medications, long-term treatment, and recovery housing—should be available to individuals. Personalized support reduces overdose risk and improves recovery chances.

  • Expand access to addiction medications.

    Medications like methadone and buprenorphine promote recovery and save lives by reducing opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms, while cutting overdose risk in half. They should be widely available, including in jails and prisons.

  • Support increased community-based naloxone access and distribution.

    This medication saves lives by immediately reversing an active opioid overdose.

  • Authorize overdose prevention centers (OPCs) on the state and local level. These centers divert drug use away from public spaces, provide connections to care, and can respond to an active overdose at its earliest sign. They prevent overdose deaths, save lives, and promote recovery as a result.
  • Increase evidence-based drug education and drug checking. Drug checking tools like fentanyl and xylazine test strips help people know what's in their drugs. Reality-based education teaches the harms and effects of drug use, and overdose response, helping people make safer, informed choices.
  • Improve data collection and research. This will help us better understand the current drug supply and offer better solutions to keep people safe and healthy. 
  • Explore legal regulation and safer supply models. Explore legal regulation and safer supply models. Harm reduction, drug checking, and treatment help reduce overdose risk and address addiction, but they can't fix the drug supply. Regulation allows policymakers to address the issue at the source, controlling drug production, access, and consumption.

Overdose deaths are preventable with health interventions.

Because today’s street supply is unpredictable, even occasional users can be exposed to potent drugs like fentanyl, dramatically increasing the risk of overdose. U.S. drug overdose rates have surged in recent years, but overdose deaths are preventable and are beginning to decrease due to health and harm reduction interventions. But we still lose nearly 100,000 lives each year–and overdose rates for communities of color continue to rise. To prevent further deaths, we urgently need public health approaches that will keep everyone safe.

Criminalization significantly contributes to overdose deaths.

Despite over 50 years of the drug war in the U.S., drugs are more available, cheaper, and more potent than ever.

Today, most overdose deaths involve opioids like fentanyl, but other drugs (e.g. methamphetamine, cocaine, xylazine, medetomidine) are also involved in overdose deaths.

The overdose crisis has been fueled by an unregulated, unpredictable drug supply. After prescription opioid crackdowns, people dependent on opioids turned to the streets to find substitutes. Many were desperate to ease painful withdrawals. The illegal drug market responded by mixing fentanyl with heroin and counterfeit pills to meet the overwhelming demand.

Drug trafficking organizations switched to fentanyl because it’s cheaper and easier to make, easier to smuggle, and more profitable. Then, the crackdowns on fentanyl spawned concerning substances like xylazine and nitazenes. Nitazenes are synthetic opioids that can be up to 10 times stronger than fentanyl.

In jails and prisons, drugs are present, effective treatment is rare, and overdoses and dangerous withdrawals occur. After release, overdose risk skyrockets due to reduced tolerance, lack of follow-up care, and/or no change in circumstances that may be causing suffering. The fear of arrest stops many from seeking help during an overdose emergency.

Overdose and other drug harms will persist so long as politicians focus on enforcement rather than addressing demand.

Invest in public health solutions to reduce overdose and save lives.

Overdose deaths remain high but are starting to decrease due to health and harm reduction solutions that help people stay alive and have a chance at recovery. These include increased access to the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone and fentanyl test strips, and medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) that cut the risk of overdose by about half.

Despite this, punitive responses are being prioritized by elected officials, while proven health solutions are underfunded and hard to access. Treatment like MOUDs are subject to strict regulations that make it hard for people to access these lifesaving medications. Harm reduction and overdose prevention programs are underfunded and under attack. Policymakers continue to block overdose prevention centers from opening.

The Drug Policy Alliance is committed to working with elected leaders to increase access to and funding for health solutions that save lives and reduce overdose deaths.

Featured

Latest

A young woman holds a sign that says "End the Drug War."

Sign up for updates from DPA.