After years of devastating increases in drug overdose deaths, the United States finally turned a corner in 2024 with a 24% decline in annual drug overdose deaths. That’s still 6,700 drug overdose deaths every month. But at least the trend was heading in the right direction.

That’s why drug addiction clinics were shocked to learn on July 16, from an exclusive NPR report, that the Trump Administration intended to withhold $140 million already approved by Congress for the Overdose Data to Action program (OD2A) that administers state grants for overdose prevention services.

OD2A was intended to streamline the collection of statistics regarding overdose deaths, while engaging in grants to states and other jurisdictions to collect the statistics, distribute naloxone, and train in how to use it.

In 2023, the OD2A entered into five-year grants funded by Congress. Now, halfway through those grants, funding has been frozen by the Trump administration. NPR quotes Chrissie Juliano, executive director of Big Cities Health Coalition, an organization that represents 35 urban public health departments:

Any changes to funding levels would be catastrophic and would really send us backwards.

The $140 million hold covers half the total approved funding. At a July 10 meeting at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), no assurances were provided for future funding for OD2A, according to a CDC staffer who leaked the details to NPR.

Many addiction programs are funded only through August 31, 2025. They are dependent upon the OD2A grants to fund operations beginning September 1. That’s not a lot of time to arrange alternative sources of funding. NPR says that “many public health departments” will be forced to curtail overdose prevention programs until funding is restored.

Not only will overdose prevention be severely curtailed, but so will the federal government’s ability to measure drug addiction levels, the effectiveness of various addiction treatments, and the spread of new synthetic variants of opioids.

NPR spoke with Keith Humphreys, a drug policy researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine, about the end of street drug monitoring programs across the country. Dr. Humphreys said the Trump administration laid off a team of researchers that has been tracking Americans’ drug usage habits for more than 50 years.

The retreat on overdose prevention is taking place on several levels. Even though every saved life saves federal, state, and local governments a significant amount of money, the Trump administration has defunded drug addiction research, defunded drug addiction monitoring, and defunded drug addiction prevention. The result is likely to be an epidemic of overdose deaths that we won’t find out about until long after the damage has been done.

Written by Steve O’Keefe. First published July 22, 2025.

Sources:

“Exclusive: Trump team withholds $140 million budgeted for fentanyl fight,” NPR, July 16, 2025.

“Report: Anti-Addiction Funding Withheld By Trump Administration,” KFF Health News, July 16, 2025.

“White House says U.S. fentanyl overdose programs will be funded ‘in increments’,” NPR, July 17, 2025.

“About Overdose Data to Action (OD2A)” Centers for Disease Control, May 2, 2024.

Image courtesy of Overdose Data to Action, used under Fair Use: Public Domain.