LA County drug overdose deaths declined for third straight year in 2025, mirroring national trend 

Drug overdose deaths in Los Angeles County dropped 6% in 2025 and have fallen nearly 30% since peaking in 2022, according to a report the Department of Public Health released Thursday.

L.A. County health officials said the recent trend shows county-funded substance abuse programs are working.

“Three consecutive years of fewer overdose deaths in L.A. County is proof that sustained investments in prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery services saves lives,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of the county’s Department of Public Health.

The county’s progress tracks just behind a larger national trend. Across the U.S., overdose deaths dropped about 35% from their 2022 peak of 107,941 to an estimated 69,973 in 2025, according to the CDC.

The CDC credits a number of factors for the nationwide decline in drug-related deaths, including the distribution of naloxone — a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses — improved access to treatment and decreases in drug potency due to shifts in the illegal drug supply.

In L.A. County, the drug overdose crisis claimed 2,298 lives last year, with methamphetamine and fentanyl continuing to drive most of those deaths.

Fentanyl's role is major but shrinking. The synthetic opioid was a factor in 49% of the county's overdose deaths in 2025, down from 64% two years earlier. The 1,135 fentanyl-related deaths recorded last year marked a 10% decline from 2024.

Methamphetamine remained involved in roughly 61% of the county's overdose deaths in recent years. The synthetic stimulant contributed to 1,405 deaths in 2025, down 7% from the previous year.

L.A. County’s overdose strategy leans heavily on “harm reduction” — a public health approach that treats addiction as a health condition and focuses on keeping drug users alive rather than requiring abstinence. That includes distributing naloxone, fentanyl test strips and clean smoking supplies.

But aspects of the harm reduction approach have come under fire from the Trump administration, which argues they enable illegal drug use. In April, federal officials barred grant money from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) from paying for syringes, pipes or fentanyl test strips.

By the numbers

Drug overdose has been the leading cause of accidental deaths in Los Angeles County since 2017, when drug deaths outpaced those from motor vehicles and guns.

Drug overdose deaths peaked in L.A. County in 2022, with 3,220 deaths (or 30.8 per 100,000 population.)

They’ve declined in the three years since: down by 3% in 2023, 22% in 2024, and 6% last year, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health. That decline mirrors a trend seen across the country over the same period.

Fentanyl's recent decline follows a steep climb. Accidental fentanyl overdose and poisoning deaths in L.A. County rose from about 100 in 2016 to more than 2,000 in 2023, according to county data reports.

In 2022 and 2023, fentanyl surpassed methamphetamine as the most common drug listed as a cause of death in county medical examiner records. That trend began to reverse in 2024, when fentanyl overdose deaths fell 37%.

Disproportionate risks

L.A. County’s overdose crisis hits some communities harder than others. L.A. County neighborhoods where more than 30% of families live below the federal poverty level had overdose death rates nearly five times that of areas where less than 10% live below poverty level.

That disparity has increased steadily over the past decade. In 2016, the rate of overdose death was 1.6 times greater in poorer areas, compared to more affluent ones.

Black Angelenos disproportionately die of drug overdose. According to the county data, Black residents make up 7% of L.A. County’s population but accounted for 22% of drug overdose deaths last year.

Drug overdose remains the leading cause of death among L.A. County’s more than 72,000 unhoused residents, who are 46 times more likely to die from overdose than the general population, according to a separate recent county report.

In 2024, unhoused Angelenos accounted for 36% of all drug overdose fatalities in L.A. County.