San Diego County recorded 840 overdose deaths in 2025, a 36 percent decline from the 2021 peak of 1,309.

District 5 Supervisor Jim Desmond, who represents Carlsbad on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, said the decline is the result of a countywide effort he helped launch in 2022. County fentanyl education and Narcan distribution programs reach schools across the county, including those in Carlsbad.

The figures were released at a press conference at the County Administration Center marking the 25th International Overdose Awareness Day. Fentanyl-caused deaths fell even more sharply, dropping from 802 in 2022 to 340 in 2025, according to county data.

Desmond said in a statement published Wednesday, Sept. 2, in The Vista Press that roughly 470 people are alive who would not have been at the 2021 death rate. He called fentanyl a poisoning, not a drug problem.

In June 2022, Desmond brought forward the motion to declare illicit fentanyl a public health crisis in San Diego County. The Board of Supervisors approved it unanimously.

That October, the board required fentanyl education in county schools and placed Narcan, a brand of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, inside them. The county also partnered with District Attorney Summer Stephan on parent town halls and a countywide awareness campaign built around the phrase "One pill can kill."

In 2021, 12 San Diegans under 17 died from fentanyl.

The youngest was 13.

The overall decline has not been even across all groups. Overdose deaths among Black and African American residents fell 48 percent between 2023 and 2025, dropping from 159 to 85, according to the county. American Indian and Alaska Native residents face the highest overdose risk at 73.7 deaths per 100,000. Deaths among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander residents have more than doubled since 2021.

Methamphetamine has also overtaken fentanyl as the substance most often involved. Meth was involved in 68 percent of overdose deaths countywide, and fentanyl in 47 percent. A single death can involve multiple substances.

At the Monday, Aug. 31, awareness event, 840 purple flags lined the lawn at Waterfront Park in downtown San Diego, one for each person who died of an overdose in 2025.

Desmond, in his final year on the Board of Supervisors, said the wins in this fight are invisible because they are the phone calls that never came.

Naloxone and fentanyl test strips are available free through the county's Harm Reduction Strategy. Residents can call the county's Access and Crisis Line at 888-724-7240 any time, or reach the national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.