The Addiction Crisis in Brossard

No Brossard-specific overdose or opioid death data was found in any confirmed public source. Brossard is a city of approximately 90,000 people located in the Montérégie health region (served by CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre), which sits just south of Montreal on the South Shore. Because the INSPQ does not publish sub-regional breakdowns at the municipal level in publicly indexed sources, Brossard's situation is best understood through the lens of the Montérégie region and Quebec provincial data. The Montérégie region reported 38 non-fatal overdoses in 2020 rising to 77 in 2021, indicating a doubling of overdose incidents in a single year — a trajectory consistent with the broader provincial surge that continued through 2024. Proximity to Montreal means Brossard residents have access to the same volatile unregulated drug supply, including fentanyl and illicit benzodiazepines, that has driven Quebec's record death tolls.

Canada is facing a public health emergency driven by a toxic drug supply. Fentanyl is now found across the country, making every unregulated use a potential risk of overdose.

01. What is happening in Brossard

Note: City-specific data for Brossard is limited. Figures reflect Quebec-wide trends.

02. A crisis that did not start this month

Quebec is an outlier in Canada's opioid crisis: while apparent opioid deaths fell 17% nationally in 2024, Quebec recorded 645 drug overdose deaths that year — its highest annual total ever, and a 35% increase over the 2023 monthly average of 536 deaths. Fentanyl or its analogues were detected in nearly two-thirds of opioid deaths. Researchers describe Quebec as "catching up" to drug-supply trends that hit British Columbia and Alberta years earlier. The province launched a free naloxone program in 2018: anyone aged 14 or older can obtain Narcan nasal spray without a prescription at any of Quebec's approximately 1,900 community pharmacies. Distribution skyrocketed tenfold between 2017-18 and the most recent reporting year, with 78,360 kits dispensed. In 2025, Quebec was again on pace to exceed 600 overdose deaths for a second consecutive year.

03. Why is it getting worse?

Quebec's escalating overdose crisis is driven by several interconnected factors documented in peer-reviewed literature and confirmed by provincial public health surveillance. First, the contamination of the unregulated drug supply with illicit fentanyl and fentanyl analogues — detected in nearly two-thirds of opioid deaths in 2024 — has dramatically increased the lethality of every use event. Second, illicit benzodiazepines (such as etizolam and bromazolam) are increasingly mixed into the supply, complicating overdose reversal because naloxone does not reverse benzo-induced respiratory depression. Third, Quebec historically had a stimulant- and cocaine-dominant drug market, meaning a large population of people who use drugs had little prior exposure to — or tolerance for — opioids; as opioids entered the supply, the province lacked the harm-reduction infrastructure (supervised consumption sites, widespread opioid agonist therapy access) that had been built in western provinces over the previous decade. Fourth, social determinants including poverty, housing instability, and rural isolation limit access to treatment and increase overdose risk. Brossard, as a suburban municipality adjacent to Montreal, faces both urban supply-chain risks and suburban barriers to accessing services, including transportation and stigma.

04. Where hope still lives

Communities across Quebec are responding with naloxone distribution, harm reduction programs, and peer support networks. Every person trained in naloxone use is a potential life saved.

05. In the news

The reporting behind this page:

• Drug overdose deaths in Canada are dropping. So why is Quebec nearing a record high?CBC News · 2024
• Overdose deaths in Quebec are on the rise, and the problem could get worseCBC News · 2025
• Quebec on pace to record back-to-back years with 600 drug overdose deathsCBC News · 2025
• How to fight Quebec's toxic drug problem? A former user says change the conversationCBC News · 2025
• Distribution of free naloxone kits skyrockets in QuebecCBC News · 2024
• Overdose Epidemic in Quebec: Population-Level Approaches and Clinical ImplicationsMDPI Drugs (peer-reviewed journal) · 2025