A Plateau!

Might the horrible fentanyl scourge be abating?!??!?

First two graphs:

Second, a note for our sponsors, you:

Happily, both charts intimate that the mind-boggling epidemic of drug overdoses that has ravaged American communities for the past decade (or so) shows signs (tentative signs) of losing momentum.

The causes for that appalling spike are well known (the cost and ease of production behind fentanyl) and the levels are catastrophic, but this does offer a faint glimmer of hope even as the situation remains a serious worry for public health.

Into the numbers:

The CDC is estimating that overdoses involving synthetic opioids numbered 79,623 in the latest 12-month window, with heroin and prescription opioid numbers seeming to abate slightly when adjusted for the full year.This is a welcome change from the preceding years of rampant increases in such deaths as fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin, has become seemingly omnipresent in America.

Such figures suggest the epidemic could be cresting, but at quite a cost. These numbers would have been unfathomable at any other site in history, and even with the plateau, overdoses continue to claim around 300 American lives daily.

The cynic may say that this is simply a case of drug-users unintentionally reducing the number of potential victims. Others may cite efforts like distribution of naloxone. But let’s stick with the good, the devastation is being curtailed.

Progress, as qualified with death and life-destruction as it is, should be welcomed as a good thing.