{"chart":{"slug":"overdose-deaths-by-drug","title":"Which drugs are involved in US overdose deaths?","takeaway":"In the 12 months ending May 2026, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids were involved in 33,959 US overdose deaths, more than any other drug, followed by methamphetamine and other stimulants (23,939) and cocaine (18,911). Many deaths involve more than one drug and count once for each, so the bars add up to more than the total number of overdose deaths. The counts are provisional, and the latest months are slightly undercounted while investigations finish.","topic":"Health","chart_type":"bar","ranking":false,"x_label":"Drug involved","y_label":"Overdose deaths involving the drug in 12 months","unit":null,"points_count":6,"source":{"name":"CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Provisional drug overdose death counts","url":"https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (U.S. government work)","url":"https://www.cdc.gov/other/agencymaterials.html"},"data_as_of":"2026-05-31","updated_at":"2026-10-17T18:50:41.544Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/overdose-deaths-by-drug","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/overdose-deaths-by-drug","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/overdose-deaths-by-drug/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/overdose-deaths-by-drug/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/overdose-deaths-by-drug/embed","credit":"CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Provisional drug overdose death counts, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/overdose-deaths-by-drug)","credit_html":"CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Provisional drug overdose death counts, via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/overdose-deaths-by-drug\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":null,"zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids","value":33959},{"label":"Methamphetamine and other stimulants","value":23939},{"label":"Cocaine","value":18911},{"label":"Prescription opioids such as oxycodone","value":6852},{"label":"Methadone","value":3327},{"label":"Heroin","value":1684}],"annotations":[]},"docs":"https://chart.ly/developers","terms":"Free to use with credit: wherever you show or quote a chart's data, name Chartly with a link to that chart's url (each chart's credit line does both) and credit its source as its license asks.","credit":"CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Provisional drug overdose death counts, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/overdose-deaths-by-drug)"}