Santa Barbara County has seen a 41% drop in overdose deaths since 2023, according to a report from the Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Bill Brown shared the news in a report to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

“I’m pleased to be able to come and report some good news to you today and also to the community,” Brown told the board. “And that is that the overdose deaths that we have been experiencing, tragically, in our community, have declined dramatically from the highs that we have seen in the 2021 to 2023 level.”

Santa Barbara County saw a high of 158 overdose deaths in 2023, according to a staff report from the Sheriff’s Office, and declining numbers in the years since then.

There were 105,000 overdose deaths across the United States in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 80,000 were due to opioid overdoses.

During this time, the county was seeing a yearly increase in deaths. There were 139 overdose deaths in 2021 and 144 deaths in 2022. Brown said in 2023 his office was seeing 13.17 deaths from drug overdoses per month.

The overall number of deaths began to decline in 2024, with 96 overdoses, and again in 2025 with 93 total overdoses.

One of the reasons given for the increase in overdose deaths was the widespread use of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which became more common in 2021. The Sheriff’s Office reported 76 deaths from fentanyl use during that year.

Brown credited messaging about the dangers of fentanyl as part of the reason the use of the drug began to decline. However, he added that many users switched to other drugs, such as methamphetamines.

In addressing the issue of addiction, Brown argued for a multi-prong approach that can include education, early prevention, drug treatment programs, and harm reduction.

“The absolute No. 1 thing that we have been doing in this county, very successfully, is the use of Narcan,” Brown said.

Narcan, a common brand name for the medicine naloxone, can be administered to people overdosing on opioids, such as heroin or fentanyl. The medicine can be administered through the nose as a spray.

Brown reminded the public that the medicine is available to the public and they can pick some up free of charge at Sheriff’s Office locations.

Data Shows Countywide Decrease in Overdose Deaths

Overdose deaths among homeless people also dropped in the county after spiking in 2023. The county recorded 51 drug-related deaths in 2023, and that number fell to 30 in 2024 and to 20 in 2025.

The sheriff said that the issue of drug-related deaths among the homeless has historically been more common among white males, but that number has fallen.

Overdose deaths among Latinos experiencing homelessness have also fallen, but not by the same degree. Brown said the statistics show that more needs to be done to focus on the Hispanic population.

The presentation also broke down the deaths by area of the county. During the peak of overdose deaths in 2023, the highest number of drug-related deaths was in the South County.

In 2021, both halves were about even with 68 deaths in North County and 69 deaths in South County. In 2022, the number of deaths rose in North County to 80 and fell in South County to 63.

After the 2023 peak, the number of overdoses in both areas of the county dropped, but remained higher in the North County.

Brown also shared that many of the people who overdosed had previously been incarcerated in the county’s jail system. He said that two-thirds of the people who died during the five years were previously incarcerated in the county.