The Addiction Crisis in Laval

Laval, Quebec sits within the Montreal metropolitan area and is served by Urgences-Santé, the regional paramedic service covering both Montreal and Laval. While city-level overdose mortality data for Laval specifically is not published separately by INSPQ, public health reporting confirms that Laval paramedics are on the front lines of the escalating crisis. In 2024, Urgences-Santé administered naloxone approximately three times per day across the Montreal-Laval service area — roughly 1,000 naloxone administrations that year alone, up dramatically from 291 in 2022, 194 in 2020, and 136 in 2018. Laval's CISSS health authority reports that 90% of hard drug use recorded by local public health involves stimulants, which complicates standard opioid-focused harm reduction responses. The Centre de réadaptation en dépendance de Laval (CRD Laval) provides second-line residential and outpatient addiction rehabilitation, opioid agonist therapy (OAT), and detoxification services for Laval residents of all ages.

Canada recorded approximately 7,560 apparent opioid toxicity deaths in 2023 (PHAC). National deaths declined roughly 11% in 2024 as British Columbia and Alberta — long the hardest-hit provinces — began to see improvements. Quebec is the primary exception to this national decline, recording its highest-ever annual death toll in 2024 (645) and continuing to trend upward into 2025. This makes Quebec, and by extension the Montreal-Laval metropolitan area, a critical focus for national harm reduction strategy even as attention and resources shift toward provinces now showing improvement.

01. What is happening in Laval

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

02. A crisis that did not start this month

Quebec is the outlier in Canada's overdose landscape: while national opioid deaths fell approximately 11% in 2024, Quebec recorded 645 confirmed or suspected drug overdose deaths that year — the highest annual total ever recorded in the province and nearly double the 2022 figure. This followed 536 deaths in 2023. Between January and September 2024 alone, the province logged 485 deaths, a 33% increase over the same nine months of 2023. Emergency department visits for possible opioid intoxication rose 38% over the same comparison period. The province's delayed entry into the fentanyl era meant it was largely sheltered before 2020; the current surge represents a rapid catch-up with the epidemic that devastated British Columbia and Alberta years earlier. New ultra-potent nitazene compounds (protodesnitazene and N-pyrrolidino-metonitazene) were detected in Quebec's drug supply in early 2025, adding further risk. At 7.3 deaths per 100,000 population in 2024, Quebec's rate remains below the national peak but is rising while the rest of Canada declines.

03. Why is it getting worse?

Quebec's escalating overdose crisis is driven by several converging factors: (1) Late fentanyl arrival — the province was largely sheltered from fentanyl until around 2020 and is now experiencing a rapid, compressed catch-up with the epidemic; (2) Toxic supply contamination — fentanyl or analogues are now detected in roughly two-thirds of opioid deaths, and new ultra-potent nitazene compounds entered Quebec's supply in early 2025; (3) Stimulant-opioid polysubstance use — Laval public health data shows stimulants dominate local hard drug use, but stimulant users who inadvertently encounter fentanyl-contaminated supply are at extreme risk because they rarely carry naloxone; (4) Geographic spread beyond urban cores — the crisis is no longer confined to Montreal's downtown; suburban areas including Laval are experiencing rising emergency calls; (5) Insufficient harm reduction infrastructure — some Montreal-area boroughs have actively resisted naloxone distribution and supervised consumption sites, limiting supply-side harm reduction reach into Laval.

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
• Quebec on pace to record back-to-back years with 600 drug overdose deathsCBC News · 2025
• Vers un record de décès par surdoses au Québec en 2024Radio-Canada · 2024
• Surdoses d'opioïdes : un record d'interventions pour Urgences-santéRadio-Canada · 2023
• Overdose Epidemic in Québec: Population-Level Approaches and Clinical ImplicationsMDPI / Academic Journal · 2024
• How to fight Quebec's toxic drug problem? A former user says change the conversationCBC News · 2025