County Overdose Deaths Drop By 21% In 2024; Racial Disparities Still Exist

SAN DIEGO, CA — Overdose deaths in San Diego County last year dropped by 21% from the year prior, according to the annual report released Thursday by the San Diego County Substance Use and Overdose Prevention Taskforce.

The total deaths due to drug overdose dropped from 1,203 in 2023 to 945 in 2024 -- that's 25% lower than the region's peak number in 2022.

The report shared other details from 2024, such as that men were three times more likely to die from overdose than women and that Black San Diegans experienced the highest rates of OD-related deaths, more than double the region's average of 27.2 deaths per 100,000 people.

People experiencing homelessness comprised around 30% of all deaths recorded in the report, and those between the ages of 45-64 were the group most likely to die of overdose, followed by the 25-44 cohort.

The racial disparities in the report were also reflected in emergency department visits, with Non-Hispanic Black residents seeing a 167% increase in opioid-related ED encounters from 2019-2023 -- nearly triple the countywide increase of 58%. Here too, males outnumber females more than 2-1.

Youth too saw an increase in ED visits with those under 18 seeing an 81% increase between 2019-2023 -- but down from a high in 2021.

According to the taskforce report, federal charges for both methamphetamine and fentanyl are down, while locally, meth prosecutions still outnumber fentanyl ones. The number of fentanyl prosecutions doubled between 2022-24.

The areas with the highest rates of overdose deaths were Central San Diego, Mountain Empire, Palomar-Julian, Lemon Grove and Pauma.

— City News Service