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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.
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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
