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 Health Canada’s Drug Analysis Service (DAS) and Cannabis Laboratory (CL).

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

More information on the Drug Analysis Service drug trends

The Drug Trends page provides an overview of how pharmacological classes, subclasses, and substances identified in samples analyzed by DAS vary across jurisdictions and over time. These results, presented as counts or percentages, can help highlight potential emerging trends.

Trends in Substances Identified in DAS Samples

These graphs show annual trends (2019-present) in substances identified in samples submitted to DAS. Results can be filtered by province/territory and by pharmacological class, subclass, or substance, and are displayed as:

For details on substance groupings, see the drug classification framework.

For additional historical trends, please refer to the publications section.

per year by pharmacological class, subclass, and substance in , from to

Pharmacological class
Subclass within selected pharmacological class
Substance within selected subclass
Note
  • Substances are categorized by the lab identification date, which may differ from the seizure date.
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Heatmaps of Drug Sample Composition by Year and Jurisdiction

The figure below includes three coordinated views to explore spatial and temporal patterns in DAS sample compositions (note that only subclasses or substances with sufficient sample counts (n ≥ 5) are shown):

  • Heatmap (centre) displays the percentage of samples containing selected classes or substances each year by province. Depending on the selection, percentages are calculated either out of all submitted samples, or (for subclasses and substances) out of all samples containing the corresponding pharmacological class.
  • National annual view (top) shows the total number of samples containing each selected class or substance across Canada.
  • Provincial summary view (right) shows the number of samples containing each selected class or substance by province over the entire time period.

Together, these visualizations highlight regional differences and changes in the presence of specific substances or classes over time. Results are based on lab identification date (which may differ from the seizure date).

Use the dropdown menus below to filter the data by pharmacological class, subclass, or substance.
Pharmacological class:
Subclass:
Substance:

from to

Note
  • Data presented in this figure are solely based on samples analyzed by DAS laboratories.
  • A single sample can contain one or more substances from the same pharmacological class and/or subclass.
  • Only cells with a denominator greater than 5 are displayed (i.e. when the denominator is less than or equal to 5, the corresponding box will be grey).
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