Kevin Donaldson uses fentanyl mixed with a powerful and dangerous animal tranquilizer called Xylazine in Burlington, Vermont. He knows how risky this kind of drug addiction can be. "I feel like some of us have learned how to deal with the overdoses a lot better," Donaldson tells NPR.
But he's still alive. And he says fewer of his friends are dying. For a while, Donaldson said it was impossible to not hear about the Fentanyl crisis in his community every other day.
"But who was the last overdose we heard about?" he asked, consulting with a friend. "A couple of weeks ago, maybe. That's pretty far and few between.
" The data backs up Donaldson's experience. The Vermont Department of Health shows 22% fewer drug deaths in the first half of this year. And the drop in deaths extends beyond Vermont.
You're reading the Consider This newsletter, which unpacks one major news story each day. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to more from the Consider This podcast . What the data shows Dennis Cauchon is an advocate for addiction treatment in Ohio, where fatal overdoses have dropped by nearly a third.
"The deaths were just plummeting and the data has never moved like this," Cauchon told NPR. In the Pacific Northwest, Brad Finegood heads the overdose crisis response in Seattle, where the latest data show a 15% drop in drug deaths this year. "A year ago when overdose deaths continued to rise, I was really struggling with hope.
But today, I have so much hope," Finego.