RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Empty chairs at a family’s Thanksgiving dinner table. That’s how Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) described the human toll of Virginia’s fentanyl crisis. 

“Between 2020 and 2023, we lost 9,566 Virginians to drug overdoses with 75% of those deaths directly linked to fentanyl poisoning,” Miyares said Tuesday. 

However, there is some good news. According to the CDC, the number of Virginians dying from a drug overdose is declining, saving hundreds of lives. 

“Those are Virginians that are able to breathe the air in this remarkable country and pursue their dreams because we have gotten fentanyl off the streets and away from them and their families,” Miyares explained. 

On Friday, Miyares joined Governor Glenn Youngkin to highlight CDC data which shows that from June 2023 until June of this year, Virginia saw a 23% decrease in drug overdose deaths, the third largest decrease in the nation over that time period. 

Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) credits the decline to increased education about the dangers of fentanyl and increased access to Naloxone. 

“There is now an overwhelming understanding that it only takes one to have that conversation. It only takes one to intervene. It only takes one to be trained and yes it only takes one, one pill that will kill,” said Youngkin. 

Despite the successes, Youngkin says more work still needs to be done. He says that starts with the General Assembly passing a law to charge anyone who sells fentanyl that causes another person’s death to be charged with felony homicide. 

“If we don’t continue to provide more tools in the toolkit for law enforcement to do their jobs then they are accepting overdose as a reality and I refuse to accept that,” said Youngkin. 

Virginia’s neighbors also saw a decrease in drug overdose deaths with North Carolina having the largest decrease in the nation.