Stanislaus County records decline in fentanyl deaths for second straight year
Fewer people are dying from illegal fentanyl in Stanislaus County, while the numbers have crept up from a more endemic drug problem.
The county has recorded 44 fentanyl deaths so far in 2025, according to Coroner’s Office data provided to the county’s Opioid Safety Coalition.
It’s an improvement over alarming data in 2023 showing 138 fentanyl deaths and 213 total overdose fatalities. Last year, the county had a 27% decrease with the 173 fatal overdoses including 101 fentanyl deaths.
The Coroner’s Office has confirmed 103 fatal drug overdoses this year.
The numbers for 2025 are not complete. It takes about three months for the Coroner’s Office to confirm suspected overdose cases, meaning final data for 2025 won’t be available until March or April. Emergency responders are seeing about three overdose incidents per day, down from four to five daily in previous years.
The second leading cause of fatal overdose is methamphetamine use. As of this week, 31 deaths from methamphetamine have been confirmed in the county this year, an increase from the running total of 24 in September.
The county had 45 meth-related deaths in last year and 38 in 2023.
Methamphetamine was a leading drug scourge in Central Valley counties for years, but production has declined since 2004, according to the Department of Justice. The 121 meth labs removed or abandoned in Stanislaus County in 2005 were far more than in eight other Central Valley counties.
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid sold by dealers, began taking a deadly toll here in 2020. The street drug has resulted in 568 deaths over six years.
The Overdose Detection Mapping Program counted 1,116 suspected drug overdoses in Stanislaus County from Jan. 1 to Dec. 10 of this year. According to the tracking system, naloxone was administered 491 times by police and fire personnel in an attempt to reverse overdoses.
Various reasons are given for a nationwide decline in fentanyl deaths, including awareness campaigns on the high risk of fentanyl use, distribution of naloxone and changes in the illegal fentanyl supply. The drug still is considered extremely dangerous.
This story was originally published December 11, 2025 at 2:47 PM.
