Rhode Island regulators open the licensing period for legal weed sellers, a Massachusetts therapeutic psychedelic bill advances, and more. Drug PolicyTrump Wildly Exaggerates Number of Drug Overdose Deaths in US. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), however, the provisional number of drug overdose deaths last year was 79,383. Drug overdose deaths have declining dramatically after topping out at slightly over 105,000 a year in 2023. Trump has a history of inflating drug overdose numbers and fanning skepticism about their veracity.