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Drug overdose deaths dropped a record amount during the past year, according to provisional data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Wednesday. The CDC reported that 94,758 individuals died because of drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending May 2024 — a 15 percent drop from the previous 12-month period. The agency estimates that number may rise to 98,820 when finalized, which would be a 12.7 percent drop. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, commended the data, which showed a decline in nationwide drug-related deaths for the sixth month in a row. (Raman, 10/16)

The number of people in San Francisco who died from accidental overdoses of fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid at the heart of the nation’s overdose epidemic, fell to a four-year low in September — a bright spot after years of the drug’s escalating devastation. Twenty-three people died from fentanyl overdoses last month, according to preliminary figures released by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Wednesday. That is the lowest number since the city began releasing monthly overdose data in January 2020. (Ho, 10/16)

A new study suggests that GLP-1 agonist medications like Ozempic, which are used for diabetes management and weight loss, may help reduce the risk of overdose and alcohol intoxication in people with substance use disorders. "It helps to underline another significant benefit of this class of medication," Dr. Angela Fitch, the co-founder, and chief medical officer of knownwell, a company that provides weight-inclusive health care, told ABC News. (Shareef, 10/17)

Consulting firm McKinsey & Co is close to an agreement with U.S. prosecutors to pay more than $500 million to resolve longstanding federal investigations into its past work helping opioid makers boost sales that allegedly contributed to a deadly addiction epidemic, two people familiar with the matter said. A deal, which has not been finalized, would resolve U.S. Justice Department criminal and civil probes, the people said. (Raymond and Spector, 10/16)

Felix Herrera Garcia’s wife called him on a September afternoon last year, just after she had discovered that three children in her Divino Niño day care center would not wake up. He ran to the basement facility in the Bronx, which prosecutors say he had long used to store and package opioids. There, prosecutors said, Mr. Herrera Garcia would have stepped over a 22-month-old boy lying on a kindergarten mat, poisoned by fentanyl. ... The events last year at Divino Niño, in which four healthy toddlers were grievously sickened within hours of being dropped off by their parents, horrified people across New York City and beyond. (Moynihan, 10/16)