Provisional data from the CDC shows a slight decrease in the U.S. drug overdose rate between 2017 and 2018. The slight drop comes after two decades of near-constant increases. According to the new data, the age-adjusted overdose mortality rate was an estimated 20.8 deaths per 100,000 for the twelve months ending in the second quarter of 2018. It was 6.1 deaths per year in 1999.