Overdose deaths—with many tied to fentanyl—in the United States have dropped 17 percent in a one-year period ending in July 2024, according to recent statistics.

While experts can’t pinpoint the exact cause of the drop, Dr. Rahul Gupta, the Biden administration’s drug czar, believes several factors could be behind the decline.

A Dec. 1, 2024, analysis of provisional data conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) attributed 70 percent of overdose deaths to fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid up to 100 times more potent than morphine. Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal.

Gupta, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said on Dec. 18 during an appearance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that increased access to life-saving naloxone, expanded treatment for addiction, and pressure from law enforcement likely played a part in the drop.

Gupta noted that China, where many of the precursor drugs are manufactured, has been more cooperative over the past year in making arrests and curtailing online market sites.

Overdoses from fentanyl have become a national crisis as traffickers smuggle the drug mainly over the U.S. southern border with Mexico, killing some 75,000 Americans in 2023 alone, according to the CDC.

Critics say cartels have taken advantage of the Biden administration’s border policy, which has allowed some 11 million illegal immigrants into the country along with an influx of drugs and crime.

The explosion in fentanyl deaths in America has sparked tension between the United States and China, from which many of the precursor drugs are shipped to cartel members in Mexico.

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to close the southwest border and floated the idea of using the military to deport illegal immigrant criminals, including Mexican cartels.

In November, Trump threatened a 25 percent tariff on Mexican and Canadian imports into America unless they took stronger action to stem the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigrants into the country.

Not long afterward, Mexico officials announced on Dec. 5 they confiscated more than a ton of fentanyl—the largest seizure in the country’s history, and theoretically enough to kill more than 450 million people.

In a separate social media post, Trump accused Beijing of not taking strong enough action to stop the flow of illicit drugs, particularly fentanyl, into the country.

“Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10 percent Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America,” Trump said.

A mother walks with her son, who is homeless and addicted to fentanyl, in San Francisco on Feb. 22, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Gupta said there’s nothing wrong with keeping pressure on China.

He also said it was essential to recognize that China and other countries have been more cooperative with the United States recently when dealing with the public health crisis.

“We have worked with countries like the People’s Republic of China, with Mexico, with Colombia, with India, and others, both on the synthetics as well as the organic side, and developed cooperative means to address a scourge that is global in scope,” Gupta said.

Gupta noted the meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden last November in California, during which they agreed to cooperate on the fentanyl problem.

Since that meeting, Gupta said, Chinese officials have made arrests and shut down websites and online platforms that produce precursor drugs used to manufacture fentanyl.

His office now has a “direct hotline” with the Chinese Minister of Public Security to coordinate the battle against fentanyl.

“It’s a progress that’s contributing to a decline in numbers,” Gupta said. “We can work to make China part of the solution for this crisis, or they can remain a part of the problem.”

Efforts to expand treatment for opioid addiction and make life-saving naloxone more available to the public likely played a part in reducing the number of overdose deaths, he said.

Gupta worked from 2015 to 2018 as health commissioner in West Virginia—the epicenter of overdose deaths in the United States. In 2022, the state had the highest rate of overdose deaths in the nation, with 60.8 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the CDC.

Gupta drew from his experience in West Virginia when he took the job to stop the sharp rise in the national overdose rate.

The overdose-reversal drug Narcan is displayed during training for employees of the Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) in Philadelphia on Dec. 4, 2018. (Matt Rourke/AP Photo)

“At that point, I realized that this is bigger than any one of us, and it’s one that all of society has to come together to address,” he said.

After studying the causes of overdose deaths in West Virginia, he advocated for the statewide distribution of naloxone, an antidote for opioid overdose, to expand its reach beyond first responders and emergency rooms.

Naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, can save lives if administered in a timely manner, reversing respiratory depression caused by opioid overdose.

As the drug czar, Gupta did the same thing on a national scale, pushing to make naloxone available over the counter at a reduced rate.

He was successful in March 2023 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first nonprescription, over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray. In some cases, it has been supplied to local jurisdictions for free.

Gupta said expanding treatment for addiction also helped lower the overdose rate.

Gupta, who started as a small-town country doctor, said he remembers wanting to help his community by treating drug addiction. Still, it was nearly impossible because of treatment licensing requirements.

Part of his mission in the Biden administration was to remove barriers for health providers to get addiction treatment licenses, he said.

Only a fraction of the 8 million Americans addicted to opioids are treated, Gupta said. Personal and societal reasons, along with stigma, play a part in people not seeking help, he said.

Photos of drug overdose victims line a chain-link fence at the Laguna Niguel Skate Park on International Overdose Awareness Day in Laguna Niguel, Calif., on Aug. 31, 2020. (Chris Karr/The Epoch Times)

Removing special licensing requirements expanded treatment, increased the number of prescribers, and increased access to drugs like methadone and buprenorphine, two of the three FDA-approved medications for opioid addiction treatment, he said.

Help is now more readily available in rural communities, prisons, and for minority populations, he said.

Another problem Gupta faced was fentanyl-laced pills being sold online.

He advocated for public awareness campaigns, warning that unlicensed online sites could be dispensing pills containing the deadly drug.

“Oftentimes, death comes in a way people are not even expecting,” he said.

“They could be ordering what they think is Adderall online, or oxycontin or Xanax, and it turns out that between five and seven out of those 10 pills that are ordered online have a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl.”

Another factor that could be having an impact is law enforcement making it harder for fentanyl to be distributed within the United States.

Pressure from law enforcement can make it more difficult, expensive, and tedious for criminals to manufacture and traffic drugs.

“This is important because we have to make treatment more accessible than getting illicit drugs,” Gupta said.