Another statement he tried to make with his film was that heroin could be legalized for terminally ill patients in Canada, claiming it already is in England. Author Susan C. Boyd wrote that, despite what the film portrays, heroin has been legal in Canadian palliative care since 1984. To research how his character would find heroin, Arcand contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and met with them in an interrogation room, resembling the one in the final film. He claimed the RCMP gave him the cellphone number of a Montreal detective, and when he called it, he heard shouting from a police raid on the Hells Angels, which resulted in the arrest of Maurice Boucher.