Enforcement 

Overview

An increasing number of jurisdictions across Canada and around the world support the concept of a balanced and integrated drug strategy, although how this plays out in terms of budgets, policies and activities varies greatly. Strategies typically embrace and attempt to find balance between supply reduction and demand reduction aims through prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction activities. Integration between these arenas or pillars is important because activities within one arena can affect the others, either positively or negatively. Those developing drug strategies or particular measures at any level (i.e., municipally, provincially, federally) need to consider and take guidance from the three International United Nations Conventions to which Canada is a signatory: the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961); the Convention on Psychotropic Substances (1971); and the Convention against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988).

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Selected Readings

Drug Treatment Courts
Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA), March 2007

Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2008 
International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), 2009

Drug Situation in Canada - 2007 [PDF]
Criminal Intelligence Directorate, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)

Alcohol Intelligence
The Globe, U.K., Issue 2, 2006

Expanding Drug Treatment Courts in Canada
Backgrounder, Department of Justice Canada, June 2005

Marihuana Growing Operations in British Columbia Revisited: 1997-2003 [PDF]
University College of the Fraser Valley, March 2005

United States - Canada Border Drug Threat Assessment 2007
Government of Canada and the Government of the United States, 
March  2008

Drug Recognition Expert Testing
Department of Justice Canada, April 2004

Trends in Drug Offences and the Role of Alcohol and Drugs in Crime (2002) [PDF]
Juristat, Statistics Canada, Vol. 24, No. 1, February 2004

Green Tide: Indoor Marihuana Cultivation and its Impact on Ontario [PDF]
Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP), 2003

Toronto Drug Treatment Court Policies and Procedures Manual [PDF]
Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada (PSEPC) and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), undated

Related Resources

Illicit Drugs, International Crime and Terrorism Division, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

International Association of Drug Treatment Courts (IADTC)

International Narcotics Control Board (INCB)

RCMP Coastal/Airport Watch Program

RCMP Drugs and Organized Crime Awareness Services (DOCAS)

RCMP Drug Enforcement Branch