Drug crimes up for first time in 12 years, bucking long-term national trend: StatCan
By Canadian Press on October 29, 2025.
Statistics Canada says the rate of police-reported drug crime is up for the first time in 12 years, while remaining well below its peak in 2011.
It says there was a 13 per cent national increase between 2023 and 2024, partly due to increases in possession and trafficking charges involving cannabis, cocaine and opioids other than heroin.
The national police-reported drug crime rate of 128 per 100,000 population is still more than 61 per cent down from a “historic peak” of 330 per 100,000 population recorded in 2011.
The agency says the Northwest Territories had the highest drug crime rate in 2024, with 2,591 incidents per 100,000 population, more than quadruple the next highest rate in Yukon and more than ten times the rate in British Columbia.
Vancouver had the highest rate of increase among major cities between 2023 and 2024 at 35 per cent.
The statistics agency says the rate of possession offences that once accounted for three quarters of all drug-related crimes in Canada dropped by more than 40 per cent between 2014 and 2024, while the overall police-reported drug crime rate fell 56 per cent in that decade.
StatCan says the overall decline in the country’s drug crime rate was largely due to the legalization of cannabis in 2018.
The report issued Wednesday says there were 70,000 cannabis offences in 2014 compared to under 9,000 in 2024.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2025.
The Canadian Press
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Slowly, our leadership is now understanding that we cannot allow this gong-show, open drug use, open dealing to continue, since it failed to have a possible effect for their harm reduction policies . . . allowing open drug use and possible of small amounts didn’t help reduce harms as those who demanded it, and without valid scientific evidence!
Those policies were pushed in BC back in 2013, ten years after the first safe injection site opened and when harm reduction policies grew . . . after 22 years it is quite clear harm reduction is a failure, yet BC continues with its mad experiments which have killed thousands . . . they won’t admit defeat and more people die.
Thankfully police, and other leaders now recognize that we must get tough on drugs to dramatically reduce the senseless death, crime and homelessness it creates!
One important point that many missed with all the statistics:
” . . . It says there was a 13 per cent national increase between 2023 and 2024, partly due to increases in possession and trafficking charges involving cannabis, cocaine and opioids other than heroin. . . .”
The public have had enough of this gong-show and pressure has been put on leadership to end this destructive practise which only harms the drug user, by allowing them to slowly kill themselves in a livestyle of hell, a lifestyle that we will never allow our dogs or cats to be subjected.
Time to return to the enforcing the laws which have always available to law enforcement, but the Trudeau Liberals would not let police enforce! For whatever reason, the Trudeau Liberals wanted us all to be a bunch of drug addicts!
My last point . . . statistics fail to tell the whole story and often miss some of the important factors.
Drug use, drug dealing and crime increased between 2014 and 2024, but it is not shown in the statistics because official reports were not made because the Trudeau Liberals ‘handcuffed’ law enforcement, not allowing them to charge many of the offenders.
“. . . The statistics agency says the rate of possession offences that once accounted for three quarters of all drug-related crimes in Canada dropped by more than 40 per cent between 2014 and 2024, while the overall police-reported drug crime rate fell 56 per cent in that decade. . . .”
People got tired of reporting crimes because when police finally arrived, nothing was ever done, no charges were made or no effort was made to find the offenders . . . so people quit reporting the crimes, therefore the crimes didn’t reflect on the statistics police collect and report to the Canadian Crime Severity Index or their own departments.
That is why I no longer trust the statistics they report . . . they are not taking into consideration all of the factors!