And now for a piece of good news! Fentanyl-related deaths in Virginia declined 44% in 2024 compared to the year before, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and touted by the Youngkin administration.

Better yet, that was the best year-to-year performance of any state in the country. Nationally, drug overdose deaths (that’s all deaths, not just fentanyl-related) declined only 26.5% between November 2023 and November 2024, according to CDC data. In Virginia, that amounts to more than 1,000 fewer deaths.

Understandably, Governor Glenn Youngkin is crowing about this positive development — a ray of sunlight in an otherwise dark and dreary sky of social and moral turmoil.

“Overdose deaths skyrocketed across America and in Virginia driven primarily by illicit fentanyl flowing across our southern border,” said Youngkin yesterday in a press release. “With an average of five dying Virginians each day, in 2022 we launched a comprehensive effort to stop the scourge of fentanyl, it’s working, and Virginia is leading.”

The Governor attributed Virginia’s success to four strategies: interrupting the drug trade; enhancing penalties for drug dealers; educating people about the dangers of fentanyl; and equipping them to save the life of someone in crisis.

“We’ve interrupted the drug trade by launching Operation FREE, an aggressive law enforcement partnership between federal, state, and local agencies to crack down on the drug trade, which has so far seized enough fentanyl to kill every Virginian ten-times over,” Youngkin said. “We passed new laws banning pill presses, notifying parents of overdose in their child’s school and finally establishing a new felony to hold accountable drug dealers whose victims die from an overdose.”

The First Lady launched It Only Takes One, an initiative to educate parents, family members, educators, and caretakers about the dangers of fentanyl. The state’s Right Help, Right Now initiative equipped Virginians with more than 400,000 naloxone doses and trained nearly one-hundred thousand on how to use the life-saving treatment.

“Virginia’s historic drop in overdose deaths did not happen by chance,” said Attorney General Jason Miyares. “Our One Pill Can Kill initiative working alongside Ceasefire Virginia has done amazing work to inform parents about the depth of the crisis and the absolute need for vigilance if we are to continue saving lives.”

Since July 2022, VDH has distributed 388,584 doses of naloxone, according to the press release. The Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services trained 96,818 people to deliver the medication and distributed 41,350 doses to them.

Bacon’s bottom line: I’m inclined to let the administration bask in the warm glow of this very good news. But I do have questions. Team Youngkin and its law-enforcement partners attribute their success to a slew of programs and initiatives. Perhaps this is a case of “every little bit helps.” But it’s also possible that some initiatives were far more consequential than others. The battle against this scourge is far from over. I’d like to see an analysis of the data to isolate the strategies that worked most effectively so the commonwealth can reallocate resources to maximum effect.