US overdose deaths are down, giving experts hope for an enduring decline

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US overdose deaths are down, giving experts hope for an enduring decline

2024-11-14 02:49 Last Updated At：02:50

NEW YORK (AP) — The decline in U.S. drug overdose deaths appears to have continued this year, giving experts hope the nation is seeing sustained improvement in the persistent epidemic.

There were about 97,000 overdose deaths in the 12-month period that ended June 30, according to provisional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Wednesday. That's down 14% from the estimated 113,000 for the previous 12-month period.

“This is a pretty stunning and rapid reversal of drug overdose mortality numbers,” said Brandon Marshall, a Brown University researcher who studies overdose trends.

Overdose death rates began steadily climbing in the 1990s because of opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths led by other opioids like heroin and — more recently — illicit fentanyl. Provisional data had indicated a slight decline for 2023, and the tally released Wednesday showed that the downward trend has kept going.

Of course, there have been moments in the last several years when U.S. overdose deaths seemed to have plateaued or even started to go down, only to rise again, Marshall noted.

“This seems to be substantial and sustained,” Marshall said. "I think there's real reason for hope here."

Experts aren't certain about the reasons for the decline, but they cite a combination of possible factors.

One is COVID-19. In the worst days of the pandemic, addiction treatment was hard to get and people were socially isolated — with no one around to help if they overdosed.

“During the pandemic we saw such a meteoric rise in drug overdose deaths that it’s only natural we would see a decrease,” said Farida Ahmad of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Still, overdose deaths are well above what they were at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The recent numbers could represent the fruition of years of efforts to increase the availability of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, and addiction treatments such as buprenorphine, said Erin Winstanley, a University of Pittsburgh professor who researches drug overdose trends.

Marshall said such efforts likely are being aided by money from settlements of opioid-related lawsuits, brought by state, local and Native American governments against drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies. Settlement funds have been rolling out to small towns and big cities across the U.S., and some have started spending the money on naloxone and other measures.

Some experts have wondered about changes in the drug supply. Xylazine, a sedative, has been increasingly detected in illegally manufactured fentanyl, and experts are sorting out exactly how it's affecting overdoses.

In the latest CDC data, overdose death reports are down in 45 states. Increases occurred in Alaska, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

The most dramatic decreases were seen in North Carolina and Ohio, but CDC officials voiced a note of caution. Some jurisdictions have had lags in getting death records to federal statisticians — particularly North Carolina, where death investigations have slowed because of understaffing at the state medical examiner's office. The CDC made estimates to try to account for incomplete death records, but the decline in some places may ultimately turn out not to be as dramatic as initial numbers suggest.

Another limitation of the provisional data is that it doesn't detail what's happening in different groups of people. Recent research noted the overdose deaths in Black and Native Americans have been growing disproportionately larger.

“We really need more data from the CDC to learn whether these declines are being experienced in all racial ethnic subgroups," Marshall said.

Associated Press reporter Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this report

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Dutch lawmaker Wilders wants to deport those convicted of violence against Israeli soccer fans

2024-11-14 14:42 Last Updated At：14:50

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Hard-right Dutch political leader Geert Wilders on Wednesday blamed “Moroccans” for attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam last week, asserting that they “want to destroy Jews” and recommending the deportation of people convicted of involvement if they have dual nationality.

While lawmakers condemned antisemitism and agreed that perpetrators of the violence should be prosecuted and handed harsh punishments, opposition legislators accused Wilders of “pouring oil on the fire” and said his statements during a parliamentary debate were not conducive to “a better society.”

Violence erupted in the Dutch capital before and after last week's soccer match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Fans from both sides were involved in unrest; a number of Maccabi fans attacked a cab and chanted anti-Arab slogans while some men carried out “hit and run” attacks on people they thought were Jews, according to Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema.

After the match, parts of a large group of Maccabi supporters armed with sticks ran around “destroying things,” a 12-page report on the violence issued by Amsterdam authorities said. There were also “rioters, moving in small groups, by foot, scooter or car, quickly attacking Maccabi fans before disappearing,” it said.

Amsterdam police said five people were treated in hospital for injuries. Police detained dozens of people before the match, but there were no immediate arrests for violence after it.

On Wednesday night, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered on Amsterdam's central Dam Square to hold a demonstration despite a new city ban on such gatherings. Large numbers of police, including some on horseback, were present and detained most of the protesters after they refused to leave, escorting them mostly peacefully into two buses and driving them away from the square.

Reports of antisemitic speech, vandalism and violence have been on the rise in Europe since the start of the war in Gaza, and tensions were high in Amsterdam ahead of the soccer match. The assaults on Maccabi fans sparked outrage and were widely condemned as antisemitic.

The violence badly tarnished Amsterdam's long-held image as a haven of tolerance and sparked soul-searching across the country.

Wilders, whose anti-immigration Party for Freedom won elections last year and now is part of a four-party ruling coalition government, said Wednesday that on the night Amsterdam commemorated Kristallnacht, the 1938 anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany, “we saw Muslims hunting Jews on the streets of Amsterdam,” and blamed ”Moroccans who want to destroy Jews."

He gave no evidence. Police and prosecutors have not disclosed the identities of any of the suspects that were detained, in line with Dutch privacy rules.

Wilders advocated canceling the Dutch passports of people convicted of involvement in the violence — if they have a double passport — and deporting them.

Wilders, who is sometimes described as the Dutch Donald Trump because of his fierce anti-immigration rhetoric, has lived under round-the-clock protection for 20 years because of death threats from Islamic extremists. He has also long been a staunch supporter of Israel.

Some lawmakers warned that his new comments only served to deepen divisions in Dutch society.

Rob Jetten of the centrist D66 party said Wilders' rhetoric "does not contribute in any way to healing. In no way does he contribute to bringing our country together, but he throws oil on the fire and thus does not bring solutions against antisemitism and for a better society any closer, but only further away.”

Frans Timmermans, who leads the biggest center-left bloc in parliament, agreed.

“What you are doing is just stirring things up, dividing this country when this country needs politicians who bring people together, who bring solutions closer," Timmermans said.

In Amsterdam, a prominent Jewish member of the City Council, Itay Garmy, said that although there’s a lot of anger and fear within the Jewish community, inflammatory remarks wouldn’t help.

“Don’t use my security or my suffering or my fear as a Jew to create political gains for yourself and make your points about integration, migration or Muslim hate,” Garmy said.

Associated Press writer Bram Janssen in Amsterdam contributed to this report.