Kern’s 2022 opioid overdose rate 83% higher than state rate

Kern County teenagers are dying from opioid overdoses at a rate almost double the state figure. 

In 2022, the most recent year for which complete data is available, Kern County doctors prescribed 376,217 opioid painkillers – 43% higher than the state overall – resulting in 675 opioid-related ER visits – 32% higher than statewide – and 308 opioid overdose deaths – 83% higher than the state as a whole.

Among the victims, were children. In 2022, seven Kern County teens between the ages of 14 and 17 died of opioid overdoses. That’s 2.8 child opioid deaths per 100,000 population, almost double the state rate of 1 per 100,000. Over a three year period, 2020 to 2022, 17 Kern County children have suffered fatal overdoses. In the three years prior to that, only two such overdoses occurred.