Worker Wellness Blog: Decrease in US Overdose Deaths in 2024
Date Posted: May 20, 2025
Posted In: Discussion, News, People, Workforce,
by Dr. John Gaal
Editor’s Note: Each week, Dr. John Gaal, director of worker wellness for the Missouri Works Initiative, a non-profit workforce formed by the Missouri AFL-CIO, collects and comments on news and trends in workforce wellness and life balance. Construction Forum carries the Worker Wellness & Well-Being Blog as a regular feature.
The MO Works Initiative focuses on creating healthy and recovery friendly workplaces; connecting laid-off workers with job-search or upskilling resources for future employment; and collaborating with community partners to offer innovative points of entry to traditional apprenticeship opportunities.
This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog looks at the growing problem of police-related suicides; to chaos of NIOSH rehires; to more Washington DC conflicts of interest that enrich/protect billionaires versus US taxpayers.
This week I would like to take this opportunity to examine the decrease in US overdose deaths in 2024.
As reported earlier this week, deaths from drug overdoses in the USA dropped 27% from 2023 to 2024.[1] Is this a reason to celebrate? Sadly, no, because the most recent data indicate we still lost ~80,000 people. Experts contribute this decrease to a number of harm reduction strategies — including but not limited to the wide distribution of Naloxone or, more specifically, Narcan (the nasal mist form of Naloxone).
Some readers may recall that my wife and I are huge supporters of the concept: You can, I can…Narcan! Why? Because we both have assisted in the use of Narcan to save two people’s lives (total strangers) — in 2022 and 2023 — at a St. Louis inner city Soup Kitchen and on a Southwest flight.
Unfortunately, high ranking DC officials — in their efforts to cut govt spending — may just cause this downward drug overdose death trend to spike back up again.[2]
As one university professor said:
“…that Mr. Trump’s almost single-minded linking of the nation’s drug problems with border issues harks back to late 19th-century America, when the government associated opium dens with Chinese immigrants. Fearing the incursion of Chinese workers and inflamed by press reports of Chinese men using opium to lure young white women into prostitution, Congress severely restricted Chinese immigration.”
While securing the borders may serve as a long term goal of reducing the supply of Fentanyl…people with OUD (opioid use disorder) will continue to die in the short term. This is NOT a simple matter of turning a switch on or off.
To this end, I ask that you please write your representatives in DC and request they strongly oppose budget calls for ending SAMHSA ‘harm reduction’ grants. These strategies span the spectrum from short to long term efforts that prevent disease transmission and keep drug users alive.
To be sure, five of my close friends have lost sons, from 24-36 years old, since 2016 to the US opioids crisis. Therefore, I can attest to the devastation bestowed upon these families. The life you help save may be the life of a loved one!
Please check out the rest of this week’s blog: https://moworksinitiative.org/category/worker-wellness-news/
Sources:
[1] https://www.wsj.com/health/drug-overdoses-2024-3968bc80
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/health/trump-drugs-treatment.html