For the first time in three decades, deaths from drug overdoses look like they're going to fall, provisional data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention suggests. In 1990, drug overdoses claimed 8,400 lives in the U.S.; and for every year afterward, the number of deaths has risen, especially in recent years, as the epidemic of opioid addiction takes a heavy toll on parts of the country. However, the CDC's data from Nov. 2017 to Nov. 2018 counted about 69,100 deaths from drug overdose, compared to 72,300 the previous year. "The opioid crisis is in early remission, yet at high risk of relapse," said Jim Hall, an epidemiologist at Nova Southeastern University in Florida. Researchers warn that the promising data doesn't mean the decline will continue.
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