The Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Thursday reported a significant drop in drug-related fatalities last year across the state.
According to the data, total drug-related deaths in 2024 decreased by 14% statewide. The sharpest reductions were seen in opioid-related fatalities, with opioid-caused deaths dropping 32% and fentanyl-caused deaths decreasing by 35%.
The decline in Florida mirrors what happened nationwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 30,000 fewer U.S. overdose deaths in 2024 than the year before — the largest one-year decline recorded. An estimated 80,000 people died from overdoses last year. That's down 27% from the 110,000 in 2023.
The FDLE report marks a major step forward in Florida's efforts to combat the opioid crisis that peaked in 2021 in drug deaths.
"We are incredibly encouraged to see these numbers continue to decline year after year," FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass said in a statement.
Glass credited Gov. Ron DeSantis and his 2023 State Assistance for Fentanyl Eradication program for contributing to the sharp decline in fentanyl-related deaths.
Although the statistics are from 2024 before President Donald Trump took office, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier credited the president's "swift action to shut down our borders and declare the cartels as the foreign terrorist organizations that they are."
He also said tougher penalties for drug traffickers — backed by DeSantis and the Republican-majority Legislature — contributed to driving down the number of drug-related deaths.
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While the numbers showed considerable improvement, the report confirms that fentanyl remained the leading drug involved in deaths in 2024.
Cocaine-related deaths fell by 19%, and methamphetamine-related deaths dropped 24%.
The report also noted that expanded access to life-saving medication such as naloxone — an opioid overdose-reversal drug — for first responders across Florida helped reduce drug-related deaths.
The increased availability of naloxone is among several possible factors to understand what drove the reduction in drug-related deaths in Florida and the nation.
Experts also cited the following factors for the decline:
- Expanded addiction treatment.
- Shifts in how people use drugs.
- The growing impact of billions of dollars in opioid lawsuit settlement money.
- The number of at-risk Americans is shrinking, after waves of deaths in older adults and a shift in teens and younger adults away from the drugs that cause most deaths.
The full report can be viewed here, listed under "Annual Workload Reports" for 2024.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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