Health

Overdose Deaths Plummet but Oregon Rate Still High

After years of troubling trend lines, the U.S. began to see a reduction in overdose deaths in mid-2023, but both the peak and decline began slightly later on the West Coast.

By Andrew Schwartz
A fentanyl pipe used in downtown Portland. (Blake Benard)

Oregon saw a sharp decline in drug overdose deaths in 2025, according federal data, as an opioid-fueled drug crisis continued to recede nationwide. Oregon’s improvement was better than in most states, but it also started 2025 in a relatively worse place.

After years of troubling trend lines, the U.S. began to see a reduction in overdose deaths in mid-2023, but both the peak and decline began slightly later on the West Coast.

Since 2023, Oregon’s overall drug overdose death rate has declined from 40 to 25 per 100,000 people. This remains higher than the national average of 19 per 100,000. The broader figure is about even with levels nationwide before the COVID-19 pandemic, although it remains far above historic U.S. rates.

Researchers at health policy organization KFF attribute the recent improvement to a number of factors: expanded treatment access, overdose-reversal drugs, public awareness efforts, and a shifting drug supply.

The drug data does not include alcohol-induced deaths—an area in which Oregon has long ranked grimly high (it peaked in 2022 at 25 deaths per 100,000 people). Here, as in the U.S. overall, alcohol-fueled deaths spiked following the pandemic, but have recently seen a slightly downward trend.

Andrew Schwartz

Andrew Schwartz

Andrew Schwartz writes about health care. He's spent years reporting on political and spiritual movements, most recently covering religion and immigration for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, and before this as a freelancer covering labor and public policy for various magazines. He began his career at the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin.

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