U.S. overdose deaths fell in 2025 but rose in some states as Trump administration cuts harm‑reduction funding

The three claims are true: 2025 overdose deaths fell about 14% to roughly 70,000 nationally, seven states reported increases with Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico up 10% or more, and SAMHSA notified grant recipients that federal funding for test strips detecting lethal additives will stop.

1. In 2025, approximately 70,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, about 14% fewer than in 2024. 2. While overdose deaths declined in most states, seven states experienced at least slight increases, with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico each seeing jumps of 10% or more. 3. In a letter last month, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration informed grant recipients that the government would stop funding test strips and kits used to detect highly lethal additives in drugs.

- Preliminary mortality data from the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System, a cohort of all U.S. death certificates, indicate about 70,000 overdose deaths in 2025, a 14% decrease from the 2024 total. - The same CDC provisional dataset shows declines in the majority of states; seven states recorded increases, with Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico each reporting rises of 10% or more. - The AP article reports that SAMHSA sent a letter to grant recipients stating that federal funds will no longer cover test strips and kits that help users detect dangerous adulterants such as fentanyl analogues.

All three claims are supported by the cited preliminary government data and the agency letter; therefore each claim is true.

The overdose death figures come from a national death‑certificate cohort, not an experimental trial, so they describe correlation between year‑to‑year changes and possible factors such as policy shifts or drug‑supply changes; causation cannot be inferred from these data alone. The state‑level increases in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico may reflect local shifts in drug mixtures, but the data do not prove that the SAMHSA funding cut caused those rises. Practical takeaways: naloxone access and addiction treatment remain critical; monitoring of emerging synthetics like cychlorphine is essential; and policymakers should watch whether reduced harm‑reduction funding correlates with future mortality trends.