The director of a Montreal safe-injection site says the city saw a record number of drug-related deaths in the last year. Injection booths are seen at the Cactus safe-injection site in Montreal, Monday, June 26, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
Montreal’s public health authority says the city saw a record number of non-fatal overdoses in the last year.
New data published this morning shows there were 708 emergency interventions in overdose cases at supervised drug-use facilities between August 2022 and July 2023.
Officials also tallied 547 cases in which first responders administered naloxone, a drug used to treat opioid overdoses.
The authority says there were 175 suspected overdose deaths in Montreal, including the city’s on-island suburbs, over the same period.
Montreal public health is advocating for more supervised drug-use sites as a way to address the growing number of overdoses.
But Jean-François Mary, director of supervised drug-use site CACTUS, says that while such centres can save lives, they aren’t a solution to the overdose crisis.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 31, 2023.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version reported that Jean-François Mary, director of supervised drug-use site CACTUS, said the city saw a record number of drug-related deaths in the last year. In fact, the city’s public health agency says Montreal saw a record number of non-fatal overdoses in the last year.
