The Addiction Crisis in Trois-Rivieres

Trois-Rivières, the largest city in the Mauricie region of Quebec, is experiencing the downstream effects of Quebec's worsening opioid crisis. While city-level overdose mortality data is not publicly broken out from provincial tallies, regional health authority CIUSSS MCQ has estimated approximately 30 drug-related deaths per year in the Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec sector. In March 2025, Trois-Rivières police issued a public safety warning after two overdoses — one fatal — involving counterfeit "Dilaudid" tablets contaminated with nitazenes, a class of synthetic opioids more potent than fentanyl and not detectable by standard fentanyl test strips. A major anti-drug operation in May 2026 resulted in 10 arrests and the seizure of five kilograms of cocaine and hundreds of methamphetamine pills. Treatment infrastructure includes the Centre de réadaptation en dépendance Domrémy (public, free), Maison Carignan (98-bed residential program), and Centre Le Havre (harm reduction and reintegration support).

Canada recorded approximately 7,150 apparent opioid toxicity deaths in 2024, an 11% decline from the 2023 peak of roughly 7,560 (PHAC). Quebec is a significant outlier: while nearly every other province is seeing decreases, Quebec's death toll rose sharply — from 380 in 2023 to 645 in 2024, a 70% single-year increase. Experts attribute this to Quebec's later-than-average exposure to fentanyl in the drug supply, meaning the province is now experiencing the acute escalation phase that British Columbia and Ontario experienced earlier. The arrival of nitazenes in 2024-2025 adds a new layer of danger. Nationally, the opioid crisis remains a public health emergency declared in 2016, with more than 47,000 Canadians having died of apparent opioid toxicity between 2016 and 2024.

01. What is happening in Trois-Rivieres

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

02. A crisis that did not start this month

Quebec is bucking the national trend. While Canada as a whole recorded a roughly 11% decline in opioid deaths in 2024 (to approximately 7,150 nationally), Quebec recorded 645 confirmed or suspected drug overdose deaths in 2024 — the highest total ever recorded in the province and more than double the 2022 figure. The provincial death rate rose from 5.1 per 100,000 in 2018 to 7.3 per 100,000 in 2024. Fentanyl or its analogues were detected in nearly two-thirds of opioid deaths. Through the first nine months of 2025, INSPQ data projected approximately 604 deaths for the full year, suggesting Quebec is on pace for a second consecutive year near or above 600 deaths. University of Montreal researchers have described Quebec as having entered a "new era" of drug-related mortality, driven by the arrival of fentanyl and now nitazenes into a drug supply that had previously been more dominated by prescription opioids and heroin.

03. Why is it getting worse?

Several intersecting factors are driving the crisis in Trois-Rivieres and the broader Mauricie region. First, the contamination of the illicit drug supply with fentanyl and, increasingly, nitazenes — synthetic opioids that are more potent than fentanyl, act faster, and are not detectable by standard fentanyl test strips — has made unregulated drug use dramatically more lethal. Second, counterfeit pills mimicking prescription opioids (particularly hydromorphone / Dilaudid) are circulating in Trois-Rivieres, meaning people who believe they are taking a known drug may be consuming a far more dangerous substance. Third, Quebec was slower than other provinces to expand harm reduction infrastructure such as supervised consumption sites and take-home naloxone programs, leaving gaps in the safety net. Fourth, rural and semi-urban areas like Mauricie face a shortage of addiction treatment capacity relative to need. Finally, social determinants — poverty, housing instability, and trauma — underpin drug use in the region, as evidenced by the overlap between homelessness deaths and overdose deaths documented by Centre Le Havre.

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:

• Quebec on pace to record back-to-back years with 600 drug overdose deathsCBC News · 2025
• 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
• Drogues et prevention des surdoses: le CIUSSS MCQ emet une mise en garde et un avis preventif (nitazenes warning for Mauricie region)Vingt55 · 2025
• Cinq kilos de cocaine saisis a Trois-Rivieres (major drug bust, 10 arrests)Le Nouvelliste · 2026-05-29
• Has Quebec entered a new era of drug-related deaths?UdeM Nouvelles (University of Montreal) · 2024-08-30