APRIL 15, 2025 – The Defense Department released a new report to Congress showing the number of both fatal and nonfatal drug overdoses among service members dropped by more than 40% from 2021 to 2023.
The report also shows that such overdoses are significantly lower within the military than among the broader civilian population.
During the five years covered in the report — calendar years 2019 through 2023 — the fatal overdose rate for service members averaged about 4.4 out of 100,000 service members. Nationally, that number is about 29.2.
The report notes that active-duty fatal drug overdoses reached an eight-year low in 2023, while fatal overdoses involving fentanyl reached a seven-year low.
The department’s report to Congress was mandated within the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024. That act requires the department to provide a similar report to Congress for the next four years.
The military community has much lower rates of fatal drug overdoses than the nation at large, the report shows. Any drug overdose or drug use remains unacceptable, as the Defense Department and the military services maintain a zero-tolerance policy regarding drug use.
While fatal and nonfatal overdoses among a variety of drugs are the focus of the report, fentanyl, a synthetic opioid some 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, is highlighted specifically in the report and remains a top concern for the department.
“The drug threat is ever-changing, and fentanyl, with its high risk for overdose and addiction, remains a concern both nationally and for the Department of Defense,” the report reads.
Overdoses involving fentanyl are now a leading cause of U.S. deaths in people 18-45 years of age, the report says. Those victims may have knowingly consumed fentanyl or may have unwittingly consumed it while using other drugs.
The department and the military services have a variety of programs to combat drug use and overdoses among service members. On a larger scale, the Defense Department is now involved in actions at the southern border that are in part meant to stem the flow of drugs like fentanyl into the country.
While China is commonly associated with fentanyl production, most fentanyl is made in Mexico using precursor chemicals sourced from China and comes into the U.S. through the southern border.
On the first day of his second term, President Donald J. Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to deliver a revised plan for how the department would “seal the borders and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.”
Since then, the number of military troops at the border has increased substantially to assist the Department of Homeland Security where needed.
On January 22, 2025, the department announced the deployment of 1,500 active-duty troops to the border to augment the 2,500 reservists already in place. In March, the Pentagon increased that presence with a Stryker brigade combat team and a general support aviation battalion, totaling approximately 5,500 new troops.
While visiting the border in Laredo, Texas, March 5, 2025, Hegseth said, “All options are on the table” for how the U.S. would deal with the criminal cartels responsible for bringing illegal drugs, such as fentanyl, into the country.
“We will not accept them controlling that border [and] poisoning our people with fentanyl,” he said.
In February 2025, the State Department designated eight cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. The redesignation by the State Department means that, for the first time, the U.S. government regards those groups the same way it does ISIS or al-Qaida. With that consideration, the response can, where needed, be similar to how the U.S. deals with terrorist groups.
The move by the State Department follows one of the president’s many actions on Inauguration Day related to securing the border.
“The cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs,” Trump said.
The president charged the military with sealing the border and maintaining the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of the United States “by repelling forms of invasion, including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.”
By C. Todd Lopez, DOD News