Health Canada's Drug Analysis Platform

Health Canada’s Drug Analysis Service (DAS) and Cannabis Laboratory (CL) analyze samples submitted by law enforcement agencies and public health partners across Canada to support investigations, monitor new and emerging trends, and inform public health and safety responses.

  • Last updated: 2026-07-16

This page presents data from Health Canada’s Drug Analysis Service (DAS), which analyzes suspected illicit drug samples submitted by law enforcement agencies and public health partners across Canada. DAS operates accredited laboratories in Montréal, Toronto, and Vancouver, analyzing approximately 100,000 samples per year.

This page shows substances identified in samples submitted to DAS and may not be representative of all drug seizures in Canada or of substances circulating on the illicit drug market. DAS’s primary mandate is to analyze suspected illicit drug samples to determine whether they contain substances controlled under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA). While DAS does not systematically report non-controlled substances, specific substances of interest (e.g., cutting agents, medetomidine, xylazine) are included on the Certificate of Analyst when identified through testing. For more details, see the Notes and publications page.

The data can be filtered by pharmacological class and subclass, which are based on the drug classification framework developed by DAS and CL.

Use the buttons below to see the Analyzed Drug Report, Drug Trends, Co-occurrence Patterns:

More information on the Analyzed Drug Report

The Analyzed Drug Report presents quarterly snapshots from Health Canada’s Drug Analysis Service (DAS). It provides descriptive statistics on the number of samples submitted by law enforcement agencies and public health partners, including the most frequently identified substances, newly identified substances, and the distribution of samples by pharmacological class, subclass, and substance.


Analyzed Drugs in -

samples analyzed (excluding cannabis)

of samples contain at least one Stimulant

of samples contain at least one Opioid

of Opioid samples contain at least one Benzodiazepine
Notes
  • Please note percentage point changes are calculated using unrounded values and therefore may differ from values calculated manually using rounded percentages on this page.
  • Proportions are calculated based on all samples submitted to DAS, excluding samples containing only substances listed in the Cannabis Act. Such samples and related analyses can be found on the Cannabis Laboratory page.

This map shows the quarterly distribution of DAS samples across provinces, territories, and nationally. Users can select a specific quarter (e.g., January to March 2024) and view results by pharmacological class, with six indicator options: number of samples, proportion of samples, number of samples per 100,000 inhabitants, number of identifications, proportion of identifications, or number of identifications per 100,000 inhabitants.

Identifications represent the number of times substances have been identified in samples analyzed by DAS. A single sample may contain multiple substances and therefore result in multiple identifications. When viewed by samples, results for pharmacological classes and subclasses reflect samples containing at least one substance from the selected class (e.g., all samples with at least one opioid, even if other substances were also present). Proportions are calculated relative to all identifications or all samples submitted to DASFootnote 1 in that jurisdiction and time period.

containing in

Trend


In Canada, there was a total of 0 samples during the period of , which represents a increase over the same period last year.

Figure 1: Text description

The bar graph shows the top substances identified in samples submitted to DAS, grouped by pharmacological class and subclass. Results reflect the selected quarter (e.g., January to March 2024). Users can choose a pharmacological class or subclass to view results.

Bars show the number of identifications for each substance, with colors indicating pharmacological class.

Number of identifications by pharmacological class and subclass in ,

There was a total of 6,608 identifications during that period which represents a 19.4% decrease over the same period last year.

Opioids
Sedatives/Hypnotics
Stimulants
Cognitive Enhancers
Physical Performance Enhancers
Antipsychotics
Cannabinoids
Antidepressants
Dissociatives
Hallucinogens
Number of identifications by pharmacological class and subclass: Text description
Substance Number of identifications

    National Quantitative Analysis Data,

    Substance Powder Tablets
    Number of quantitative analysis Average % (weight/weight) Number of quantitative analysis mg/unit
    Notes
    • When requested by law enforcement agencies for a particular investigation, quantitative analysis, aimed at determining the quantity of a controlled substance in a sample, is performed only for certain substances and is carried out on a very small subset of exhibits that are analyzed.
    • Only those substances that have been quantitated in the time period selected are included in this table.

    Date modified: