The cost of getting high on opioids has fallen more than 90% over the last two decades as illicit drugs have become more potent and overdose deaths have risen, according to an Aug. 24 New York Times report.
Here are five things to know:
1. Two dollars could buy a pill containing two milligrams of fentanyl in 2025. Those two milligrams are equivalent to 60 milligrams of heroin, which cost $46 in 1983, representing a 96% drop in the price of an opioid high from the early 1980s to 2025, without adjusting for inflation.
2. Overdose deaths rose from 6,700 in 1972 to 80,000 in 2024, according to the report.
3. One factor behind falling drug prices has been a shift from drugs grown on farms to synthetic drugs made from cheap chemicals in labs across the globe. The United Nations has identified more than 1,500 novel psychoactive substances.
4. Cannabis prices have followed a similar trajectory. Between the late 1980s and early 2010s, the price per 10 milligrams of THC fell nearly 60%.
5. In Oregon and California, 10 milligrams of THC cost about 10 to 20 cents in 2025, representing a price decline of more than 96% from 1987.
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