Has Quebec entered a new era of drug-related deaths?

For the last decade, people who use drugs in Quebec have been partially sheltered from Canada’s drug overdose epidemics. But since 2020, the picture has changed: the contamination of the drug market is now present in Quebec, and what happened in British Columbia and Ontario is now happening here, says researcher Sarah Larney.

In a recent study published in Drug and Alcohol Review, she analyzed datasets of accidental deaths between 2012 and 2021 determined by the coroner to be due to opioids or stimulants, and what she found out is worrying: the drug-related mortality rates in Quebec increased over time, peaking in 2020 and remaining high in 2021.

In addition, fentanyl and new synthetic opioids are on track to become the most commonly detected substances in opioid poisoning deaths in the near future.

These drugs often contain adulterants, active pharmaceutical ingredients added to enhance or mimic the expected effects of the illicit substance being used.

“In the recent past, people used to buy heroin and there were adulterants in it, but those adulterants didn’t kill you. Now you can only buy fentanyl, which is far more potent than heroin, and the adulterants are much more deadly as well,” says Sarah Larney, a professor in Université de Montréal’s Department of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine and an investigator at the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse (CRISM).

We discuss her study results in more detail.

Q. The drugs currently offered on the illegal market in Quebec (fentanyl and derivatives) are not the same as in 2019. How do you explain this market shift when Quebec traditionally differentiated itself from British Columbia?

A. It coincides with the COVID-19 pandemic, even though there were signs that fentanyl was on the rise before that. The opioid overdose epidemic has been made worse in Canada by this “Big Event”, which had escalated from approximately 3700 drug poisoning deaths in 2019 to over 7300 deaths in 2022.

The pandemic disrupted the drug market, catalyzing and accelerating the change in what people were buying and using.

In fact, a key change is the greatly increased presence of fentanyl and new synthetic opioids in opioid poisoning deaths recorded in Quebec since 2020.

Toxicological findings from drug-related deaths suggest that Quebec potentially may have entered a new era of elevated overdose mortality at this time.

Q. You also found that deaths were often due to a combination of opioids and benzodiazepines. Why is this a concern from a public health perspective?

A. Most overdoses involve more than one drug. For a long time, overdoses in Quebec involved well-known benzodiazepines like Valium. But now we are seeing potent new benzodiazepines (synthetic tranquillizers) being combined with opioids, intentionally or not.

This novel combination is of particular concern. The sedative effects of benzodiazepines combined with the tendency of opioids to slow the central nervous system and respiratory system, increase the risk of overdose and reduce the effect of naloxone to wake someone up.

The risk of overdose is higher than before, the risk of not recovering from an overdose is also higher. It is a very scary situation.

Q. Despite all the overdose prevention campaigns, overdose mortality rates have gone up. What do you think we should do to tackle this issue more effectively?

A. With nearly 45,000 opioid overdose deaths recorded between 2016 and 2023, Canada continues to grapple with a drug poisoning epidemic.

Interventions are essential. Naloxone, safer supply, accessible supervised consumption sites are part of the answer, but they are not enough today even though we know harm reduction works.

Now, with the lethality of the drug supply, we need to look at drug law reform, such as drug decriminalization or even legalization. We can take inspiration from a fairly successful model in Portugal, which has reduced overdoses and HIV cases, and try it at the city level in Montreal, for example.

Moreover, the literature tells us that criminalization and punishment do not work. Instead, we should invest in social policy reforms that address the root causes of problematic drug use: poverty, income inequality, and the housing crisis.

Our study draws attention to what the most recent data says: things have changed and we need to respond.

Science writing: Bruno Geoffroy

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About this study 

“Trends in toxicological findings in unintentional opioid or stimulant toxicity deaths in Québec, Canada, 2012–2021: Has Québec entered a new era of drug-related deaths?,” by Uyen Do under the supervision of Sarah Larney and her colleagues, was published August 6, 2024, in Drug and Alcohol Review.

Sarah Larney is supported by a Research Scholar award from Fonds de recherche du Québec.

About the CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM)  

Université de Montréal's affiliated hospital research centre, the CRCHUM, is one of North America’s leading hospital research centres. It strives to improve the health of adults through a continuum of research spanning disciplines such as basic science, clinical research and population health. Some 2,120 people work at the CRCHUM, including nearly 550 researchers and more than 525 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. crchum.com 

About Université de Montréal  

Deeply rooted in Montréal and dedicated to its international mission, Université de Montréal is one of the top universities in the French-speaking world. Founded in 1878, Université de Montréal today has 13 faculties and schools, and together with its two affiliated schools, HEC Montréal and Polytechnique Montréal, constitutes the largest centre of higher education and research in Québec and one of the major centres in North America. It brings together 2,300 professors and researchers and has close to 67,000 students. umontreal.ca