Drug and Alcohol Rehab in Montreal: the honest guide

Clinically reviewed byNerea Encinas SánchezDirector of the centre, MSc General Health PsychologyRegistered psychologist, COPAO AO13857

Checked for accuracy on 28 July 2026. Next review due July 2027. This page is general information about our programme and is not a substitute for advice about your own situation.

The picture in Montreal

Montreal is Quebec’s largest city, and health care here is public and delivered mostly in French. Addiction in Montreal is treated mainly through this public system: rather than paying up front, most people reach help through a provincial help line and the local health network, the CIUSSS, which arranges assessment and free treatment, broadly following what is often called a recovery model, treating addiction as an ongoing health condition rather than a single event. Private and non-profit rehabs in Montreal also operate in and around the city, and the same CIUSSS network usually covers people near Montreal too, not just those within city limits. The honest starting point for almost everyone is the free route below.

Speak to a clinician about treatment from Montreal

Confidential, no obligation, and no referral fee is paid to anyone for sending you here.

Speak to a clinician+44 1202 653136

Free drug and alcohol services in Montreal

Start here, before you consider paying for anything. These services are free, they are local, and for a great many people they are enough on their own. We publish them because a centre that only tells you about its own programme is not giving you the full picture.

Checked 28 July 2026. Commissioned services are retendered periodically, so confirm the current provider with the authority before you travel to an appointment.

AA and NA meetings in Montreal

Mutual aid meetings are free, they run most days, and there is no waiting list, no referral and no assessment. You can walk into one this week. They work alongside whatever else you choose rather than instead of it, and plenty of people use them and nothing else.

What actually happens at a first meeting

You do not have to speak, and you do not have to give your surname. Most meetings open with a reading, someone shares for a while, and others speak if they want to. It lasts about an hour, and it is free, though a basket goes round for the room hire. Nobody takes a register and nobody will ask you to commit to anything.

An open meeting can be attended by anyone, including family. A closed meeting is for people who think they may have a problem themselves. If the first group does not suit you, the next one along will feel different, because each has its own character. The usual advice is to try three before deciding it is not for you.

We link the official finders rather than print a timetable, because meeting times and venues change and a stale listing sends someone to a locked door. Checked 28 July 2026.

Private and residential rehab in Montreal

There is no Sierra clinic in Montreal, and no local centre could be verified for this guide. Publicly funded residential rehabilitation for people in the Montreal area is delivered through the CIUSSS addiction-rehabilitation programme, free, and reached through the help line above. Private and non-profit alcohol rehab centres in Montreal also operate in and around the city, offering private treatment, outpatient programmes and inpatient or residential drug rehab and alcohol rehab care for individuals struggling with addiction who want a faster route than the public wait list. Providers vary widely: some describe their approach as evidence-based treatment, holistic, or built around an individualised or personalised treatment plan for drug addiction or alcohol and drug addiction, and quality differs from one rehab facility, rehab centre or addiction rehab service to the next. Québec certifies private addiction resources, so before you commit to any treatment centre, ask to see its current certification, ask what an individualised treatment plan actually involves day to day, and check exactly what the fee includes. The help-and-referral line can point you to certified treatment providers offering genuine care and treatment rather than just a bed, whether that is a residential rehab centre in Montreal or an outpatient service closer to home.

No specific private centre in Montreal could be independently verified for this guide. Confirm any centre’s certification and fees directly before you rely on them.

What treatment costs

Public treatment through the CIUSSS is free, with the trade-off that there can be a waiting period. In the private sector, published Canadian directories list residential rehab commonly from around CA$10,000 to CA$30,000 a month, with little that is credible and free. For comparison, Sierra’s £9,900 for a 28-day residential programme, private room included, sits below typical private residential pricing, because the cost of running a clinic in the Spanish countryside is lower, not because the care is. Costs for drug rehab programmes vary across Canada more broadly, not just in Montreal, and our separate guide to the cost of rehab in Canada below sets out those wider ranges.

Cost figures are indicative ranges drawn from published directories, dated above, not quotations. Every centre sets its own fees.

Considering residential treatment abroad?

Sierra Recovery, Málaga, Spain

Most people who look abroad are not chasing sunshine. They are trying to get far enough away from the people, the places and the routine that keep the drinking or the using going, because they have already discovered that stopping while all of that is still fifteen minutes away does not hold. That distance is the whole point, and it is the one thing a clinic near Montreal cannot give you.

Sierra Recovery is a working farmhouse on forty hectares of olive groves in the Málaga countryside, about forty five minutes from the airport and roughly three hours from most UK airports. It is small, the team is English-speaking, and the same clinicians treat you from the first day to the last. What follows is what that actually buys, stated plainly enough that you can compare it with anything else you are considering.

What matters when comparing	Sierra Recovery
Is it actually licensed	A registered health centre entered in the Registro Andaluz de Centros, Servicios y Establecimientos Sanitarios (the Andalusian register of health centres, services and establishments) under N.I.C.A. 67331, authorised by the Junta de Andalucía. You can look it up yourself on the public register.
What it costs, in full	£9,900 for the 28-day residential programme, published on the site up front. All rooms are individual. You get an itemised written quotation before admission.
Who pays whom	No referral fees are paid or accepted, in either direction. Nobody earns a commission for sending you here, which is worth checking about any centre you are comparing.
What the clinical work is	Three group sessions a day five days a week, individual therapy three times a week, and a seventeen-module psychoeducation curriculum. The approach adapts the method of PROMIS Clinics, treating addiction in the United Kingdom since 1986.
Where the limits are	It is not a hospital and not a detox unit. Where a medically supervised detox is clinically needed it is completed in an appropriate medical setting before admission and billed separately. Qualified nurses are part of the team throughout the stay.
Who you speak to first	Our admissions team, all of them clinicians, working to the standards set by our clinical director. The assessment is free, and if a service closer to home suits you better, we will say so.
What happens afterwards	Aftercare is agreed before you leave: a session every week for a full year, online or in person at the PROMIS clinics in London, which is more than 48 sessions in the twelve months after discharge. A written handover goes to your GP so nothing has to be explained from scratch.

Every figure above is published elsewhere on this site and can be checked. See pricing, regulation and licensing and the programme.

Which option is right for you

Start with Drugs: Help and Referral if you are unsure, if cost is the barrier, or if you want to stay near family and work; it is free and it is the door to publicly funded treatment. Use AA or NA alongside whatever you choose. Public CIUSSS treatment if you are content to wait for free residential or community care in French. A private residential centre if you need detox and rehab together quickly and can fund it, having checked the centre’s certification. Treatment abroad only if a private stay at home is out of reach, distance from your usual surroundings would genuinely help, and you can travel and do not need an immediate hospital detox. If a local route serves you better, take it; we would rather tell you that than take an admission that is not right. There is no single best rehab for everyone: individuals struggling with addiction, or struggling with alcohol, generally do better with the option that matches their situation, their finances and the family support around them, whether that is free, private or abroad. Finding the best rehab, or the right drug treatment and substance use treatment services more generally, usually means weighing cost, distance and how quickly you need to start against what each option can actually deliver for someone recovering from drug addiction.

When you have weighed it up and want to talk it through with a clinician, our admissions page explains what happens next.