For the first time in decades, public health data shows a sudden and hopeful drop in drug overdose deaths across the U.S. 'This is exciting,' said Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute On Drug Abuse, the federal laboratory charged with studying addiction. 'This looks real. This looks very, very real.' National surveys compiled by the CDC already show an unprecedented decline in drug deaths of roughly 10.6%. That's a huge reversal from recent years when fatal overdoses regularly increased by double-digit percentages. Some researchers believe the data will show an even larger decline in drug deaths when federal surveys are updated to reflect improvements being seen at the state level, especially in the eastern U.S.
