This chart, which was obtained by Claycord.com through a public records acts request, shows drug overdose deaths from 2010 to 2023, comparing Contra Costa County (in gray) with the statewide totals in California (in blue). Before it’s too late, anyone who shows signs of substance abuse should seek Mental Health Counseling in Sarasota to start their recovery journey.
California (Blue Line): Gradual increase from 2010 (3,288 deaths) to 2019 (6,162 deaths). Sharp spike starting in 2020.
- 2020: 9,116 deaths
- 2021: 11,093 deaths
- 2022: slight dip to 10,939
- 2023: new high at 11,313 deaths
- Overall increase: Overdose deaths more than tripled from 2010 to 2023.
Contra Costa County (Gray Line): Deaths remained relatively stable from 2010 to 2018, fluctuating between 85 and 157.
- Noticeable jump in 2019 (160 deaths), with a continued rise:
- 2020: 244 deaths
- 2021: 272 deaths (peak)
- 2022: slight drop to 248
- 2023: rise again to 271
- Overall trend: More than tripled in deaths from 2010 (85) to 2023 (271), mirroring the statewide surge.
Both California and Contra Costa County saw a dramatic rise in drug overdose deaths starting around 2020, with the trend remaining elevated through 2023. Data for 2024 and 2025 is not currently available as the information has not yet been released by the California Department of Public Health.
They will OD no matter what we do. These are addicts and they live only for a fix. They OD and then medics resuscitate them and they are back on the street to seek out their next fix. It is rinse and repeat. The overdose death is just the end result for this lifestyle.
Former Contra Costa Paramedic of 20 years here.
Hmm, why is CA so different from rest of the country ? ? ?
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PROP47 passed and took effect in 4 November 2014.
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California passed out needles and pipes.
SF started there needle program in 2018, then went on to create safe areas to use.
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Once again democrat politicians, knew how to FIX the problem and as happens often
they were wrong. How much fentanyl and other synthetic opiates contributed to
death rate have no idea.
Louisiana and Mississippi (both republican states) have had even larger increases in drug overdose deaths per capita so your logic is flawed. There has been a national rise since the DEA rescheduled prescription opiates so everyone who was addicted to their prescription OxyContin switched to heroin and then fentanyl. The cause is well known but people like the pretend it’s a blue state issue for some reason. Go look at the data.
In any state, who OD’s the most…… Democrat druggies or Republican druggies?
I can’t find a stat for that but I think we all know the answer.
To be brutally honest, I doubt that there are many people who are going to miss them too much.
Why no outrage? I think there is no outrage because it would call into question our policies that allow drugs/etc to be so easily gotten and used If there was outage, people outside the county and state would find out, and then challenge our policies allowed by our politicians
It is because we don’t care about druggies. They don’t even care about themselves.
Unfortunately, the chart is a feeble representation of what is happening in Contra Costa County. Because CCC is compared against the entire state, the Y-scale is big and doesn’t visually show the steep increase in overdose deaths in CCC over time (X-axis). A relative comparison or a dual-axis scale would better represent the dramatic increase. Also, this does not appear to account for population growth over the years (not that it would make a big difference).
Let’s hope some changes in laws and increased enforcement will help decrease the death rate.
Must be the Climate.
I asked the highest qualified source I know if it was climate change and the answer was
“Very Doubtful”
https://tinyurl.com/ysuy9sfd
I could spit out 20 far more egregious outrages without even
getting out of bed.
Much of the increase in drug deaths was due to the surge in the smuggling of fentanyl by the Mexican drug cartels. Prior to about 2015, drug users took drugs that weren’t normally as deadly as fentanyl. A related cause for the more recent surge in deaths was the common practice of drug dealers mixing fentanyl into more common drugs without the drug users knowing about it.
This is an important point because the fentanyl endangers the safety of first responders. Reality of where fentanyl is coming from will need to be separated from the political propaganda on all sides to effectively decrease access.
No outrage if they want to die from drugs they can and our state is all for it.
If homelessness and drug abuse was eliminated from California,half of the state would be unemployed and become homeless drug addicts.It’s a problem that becomes worst if you fix it.The entire country would implode if nobody was sick,nobody got arrested,all machiney lasted for years and all vehicles and houses were energy efficient.The country runs on turmoil fueled by waste and shoddy products and bad health and behavior,including any and all immigration crimes.The country lives and survives on these problems that they pretend need fixing.All America has is the “fix it ” industry.Products are made designed to fail after a short time.Attempted repair is all America really is.Only 2 kinds of people here,those that fix things,and those that need help anytime anything goes wrong.
“Drug overdoses”?street drugs or perscribed drugs?Why is the article so vague?To create outrage with no origin?Drug overdose…what kind?street people or proffesional patients?Sounds like they don’t want you to know,just be upset about it.
Look at it skyrocket late 2019 to 2021 the height of the covid scam.Everyone took their stimmy check,stayed home and OD’d.The Biden regime created such depression even leading up to it,nobody wanted to live.
A crackdown on prescription opioids from 2010-2013 seems to have triggered an increase in the availability and use of fentanyl on the street which lead to a great increase in the overdose deaths.
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Contra Costa county has 3 percent of the state’s population and has averaged 2.6 percent of the overdose deaths.
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Year Calif CCC Percent
2010 3,288 85 2.6%
2011 3,424 99 2.9%
2012 3,500 105 3.0%
2013 3,736 119 3.2%
2014 4,049 121 3.0%
2015 4,556 107 2.3%
2016 4,489 121 2.7%
2017 4,697 121 2.6%
2018 5,321 157 3.0%
2019 6,162 160 2.6%
2020 9,116 244 2.7%
2021 11,093 272 2.5%
2022 10,939 248 2.3%
2023 11,313 271 2.4%
Total 85,683 2,230 2.6%
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California population: 39,431,263
CC County population: 1,172,607
Percentage: 3.0%