Grant: IPPH Travel Awards - CPHA Annual Conference

North America is facing an unprecedented wave of opioid-related overdoses, affecting both people who use drugs (PWUD) and those taking prescription opioids. There is little data currently available on the extent of the situation in the Laurentians (Quebec, Canada). The purpose of this study is to identify the best North American interventions, facilitators and barriers, as well as to understand the opioid crisis in the Laurentians region. A mixed-method design was developed by combining a literature review of systematic reviews and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the Laurentians. The nine systematic reviews revealed five categories of intervention: Those targeting opioid prescriptions, naloxone distribution, the use of psychosocial intervention in combination with opioid substitution therapy, medical cannabis in pain management and functional magnetic resonance imaging to study opioid use disorders. Naloxone distribution programs showed good evidence of effectiveness, but studies for other types of programs showed weak to no impact on the opioids-related harms. Four Laurentian stakeholders were interviewed: a public health officer, a PWUD, a community health physician and a community pharmacist. They presented their perspective according to five themes: the state of the situation in the Laurentians, the cause of the epidemic, the people at risk and the response to the crisis in the region, as well as future prospects. This study brings a new perspective on what is currently being done to address the opioid crisis in North America and how this knowledge can be applied to the opioid crisis in the Laurentians region and possibly in other Canadian regions.