Families Against Fentanyl’s logo. Photo provided by Families Against Fentanyl.

News Release 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new provisional data Wednesday, May 15, indicating that in 2023 U.S. fentanyl poisoning deaths decreased slightly from 2022 levels, marking the first decrease in fentanyl deaths in more than a decade.

The CDC also released data indicating that overall drug poisoning deaths, or “overdose deaths,” decreased in 2023, marking the first decrease in those deaths since 2018. Families Against Fentanyl, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the fentanyl crisis, is encouraged to finally see some decrease in deaths, but remains deeply concerned that deaths remain near all-time highs and that not enough is being done to find the foreign manufacturers and traffickers of illicit fentanyl and stop shipments before the poison reaches our communities

“While it is encouraging to finally see a slight decrease in drug and fentanyl deaths, the number of deaths remains unacceptably high. We are still losing more than 200 Americans per day to fentanyl poisoning,” said Families Against Fentanyl Founder Jim Rauh, whose son died by fentanyl poisoning in 2015 after highly lethal fentanyl was shipped directly from China to a drug dealer in Ohio.

“That’s 200 families experiencing soul-crushing loss every single day. It’s more than double the fentanyl deaths we had just a few years ago in 2019 and more than triple the deaths in 2016. We cannot allow this to become our new normal,” said Rauh.

“The U.S. must do more to find the foreign manufacturers and traffickers of illicit fentanyl and stop shipments before this poison reaches our streets. We urge President Biden to declare illicit fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction and establish a White House task force dedicated to the fentanyl and drug poisoning crisis,” stated Rauh.

Families Against Fentanyl is also urging President Biden and the U.S. Congress to close a loophole in U.S. trade law known as “de minimis” that is being exploited by foreign manufacturers and traffickers of illicit fentanyl.

“More Americans died of fentanyl poisoning last year than died in the entire twenty plus years of the War on Terror. We are experiencing losses equivalent to two 9/11 attacks every month. Our leaders in Washington must do more to find and stop the foreign manufacturers and traffickers of illegal fentanyl before more of this poison reaches our streets,” added Rauh. He noted that the majority of the manufacturers of illicit fentanyl and its chemical precursors are located outside the United States.

Families Against Fentanyl is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the illicit fentanyl crisis and advocating for federal action, including calling for a White House taskforce on the fentanyl and drug crisis and bringing together bipartisan leaders and thousands of families to urge the U.S. to designate illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.

Families Against Fentanyl has become a leading voice for fentanyl awareness, producing research cited by leaders across the United States and around the world. In December 2021, Families Against Fentanyl released its groundbreaking finding that fentanyl was the number one cause of death among Americans ages 18 to 45.