Quebec may be spared so far from the opioid crisis impacting the rest of Canada but the Couillard government is taking no chances and is spending millions on addiction prevention and treatment.
Quebec Health Minister Gaetan Barrette and Quebec Public Health Minister Lucie Charlebois announced this afternoon that the government would be spending an extra $35M a year on addiction prevention and treatment programs, including general substance abuse and gaming and gambling addiction.
It's part of a ten year plan involving several ministries.
Campaigns focusing on marijuana abuse will get $5M more a year.
Programs targeting opioid overdoses will get $15M from this amount plus an additional $8M over three years. Most of the money will go towards training and awareness measures including administering the Naloxone antidote. Barrette said he'd like to see emergency and public security authorities be trained to administer Naloxone as quickly as possible including police.
Community organizations helping treat those with addictions will be getting more funding as well.
Last year, 181 people died of opioid overdoses in Quebec compared to over 3600 in all of Canada.
Barrette attributed the low numbers in Quebec to the fact that fewer opioids are prescribed here and are prescribed in smaller doses and over a shorter period of time.