United Against Fentanyl, a DC-based drug policy organization, recently asserted that “in 2026, overdoses in the United States are at an all-time high,” pointing to how the rate of non-fatal overdoses so far in 2026 was higher than it was in recent years.
Citing the federally funded National EMS Information System (NEMSIS) dashboard, United Against Fentanyl’s Paul Martin noted that the rate of non-fatal overdoses was 196 per 100,000 people through the 12-month period ending in May 2026. In comparison, it was 173 per 100,000 in 2023, 184 per 100,000 in 2021, and 135 per 100,000 in 2019.
- Source: United Against Fentanyl based on data from the National EMS Information System
Of note, the NEMSIS dashboard, which reports on data from EMS responses rather than hospital admissions, did not include data for 2024 or 2025. It is plausible that the rate of non-fatal overdoses was higher during those years than it was during the 12-month period ending in May 2026.
Even so, the rate of non-fatal overdoses is higher now than it was a few years ago, while the rate of fatal overdoses has decreased. As the rate of non-fatal overdoses increased from 184 per 100,000 people in 2021 to 196 per 100,000 people during the 12-month period ending in May 2026, the rate of fatal overdoses decreased from 32 per 100,000 people in 2021 to 23 per 100,000 people in 2024.
United Against Fentanyl said there are “more overdoses, but fewer fatalities,” adding that “the downstream rescue side of the problem is working.” For example, interventions like naloxone help prevent non-fatal opioid overdoses from being fatal.
However, they argued that more must be done: “yes, we’ve gotten better at catching people after they fall off the cliff. But we’ve done almost nothing to move them away from the edge.”
To lower the number of non-fatal overdoses, the organization called for greater investments in prevention, treatment, and recovery. They also called on the federal government to work with China to crack down on the distribution of the precursor chemicals for fentanyl.