While the number of overdose deaths both nationwide and across Louisiana have been trending down over the last year, drug overdoses are still behind tens of thousands of deaths in the United States.
According to data from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention, in 2025, U.S. overdose deaths dropped for the third consecutive year, down almost 14% from 2024 to 2025.
In Louisiana, the CDC reported 1,399 overdose deaths in March 2024, compared to 1,185 in March 2025, which is more than a 15% drop.
Taking a closer look at the Capital Region, East Baton Rouge (EBR) Parish has seen a sharp decrease in the number of overdose deaths in the last two years. According to the EBR Coroner’s annual 2025 report, in 2023 the parish reported 289 overdose deaths, in 2024 there were 188, and in 2025, there were 118 overdose deaths with 17 pending cases.
Fentanyl overdoses
One of the biggest culprits in overdose deaths nationwide is fentanyl. According to the CDC, fentanyl overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans 18 to 45. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid used for surgery or for treating severe pain. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.
The CDC says that while early provisional statistics for 2026 show an encouraging decrease in mortality, fentanyl remains the leading cause of accidental drug overdose deaths in the United States. Just two milligrams of fentanyl, which is smaller than a grain of salt, can be lethal.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, so far this year, the DEA has seized more than 21 million fentanyl pills and 9,970 pounds of fentanyl powder, amounting to about 239 million deadly doses.
It’s a drug that EBR Parish saw a lot of problems with in the past. According to EBR Parish Coroner Dr. Beau Clark in 2023, from 2015 through 2023, EBR Parish saw a 6,000% increase in fentanyl overdose deaths.
“In the past, the only person who would die from an opioid overdose was an opioid addict,” Dr. Clark told UWK in 2023. “Now, you have people who are using their illicit drugs and are now encountering Fentanyl because it’s laced into the drug. This isn’t going to go away. This is only potentially going to get worse unless we take some drastic efforts. That’s what’s alarming and should be alarming for everybody.”
Nitazene overdoses
And now, there’s a new warning about drugs causing overdose deaths close to home. On Aug. 25, 2026, the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) New Orleans division issued a warning to Northshore communities, including St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parishes, about a spike in overdose deaths involving lethal synthetic opioids, known as nitazenes.
According to the DEA, nitazenes are an unregulated class of synthetic opioids and were never approved for medical use. They are increasingly circulating through Northshore communities. The drugs primarily come from foreign chemical suppliers, and are frequently mixed into fentanyl powder, heroin, or pressed into counterfeit prescription pills to make drugs cheaper to make and significantly more potent.
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