Comment by bsder

> fentanyl powder and pills were losing potency just as overdose deaths were falling

Combined with the already dead, does this not explain things?

Illegal drug suppliers don't make money by killing their customers. Consequently, they finally got control over the potency throughout their supply chain.

Although, I'm more interested in the standard deviation of the potency than the absolute value of the potency. I suspect that is much more correlated with OD deaths.