Health Canada launches two new drug detection units to fight fentanyl trafficking—but will they be enough?
CAA Comment
The insightful series of articles by Break the Needle gives an evolutionary overview of illicit drug use in Australia as we follow the patterns experienced in Canada.
Fortunately, the Canadian reality is, in our estimation, five years ahead of where Australia is now.
Unfortunately, our civic leaders tend to have their heads in the sand. They are blissfully hoping that the drug strategies that have been allowed to develop will somehow work in Australia, where they have failed miserably in Canada.
Whether it is the misuse of Harm Minimisation practices, allowing pressure groups to drive a pro-drug agenda or whether there is insidious pressure from the criminal element.
On the point of pressure on civic leaders from the criminal elements, we have no evidence to suggest that is happening, but we must be alert to the possibility, as the Illicit Drug industry is milking Billions of dollars from this illicit trade, so it is reasonable to presume that if the opportunity arises, the drug industry will exploit leaders for their own benefit.
Australia is not immune from clandestine laboratories manufacturing illegal drugs. Recently 178 charges were laid against 41 people after a Police raid on Labs in Biloela, Gladstone and Gracemere in Queensland. Herald Sun
Sophisticated Labs are here, generally used to manufacture Methamphetamine. But that may only be a step towards Fentanyl. The Crime Intelligence Commission (Aus) National Wastewater Drug Monitoring makes for an interesting read.
Of course, Governments will cry poor, but they must privately realise that fighting the war now and hard will have positive fiscal benefits in the future and may also save many wasted lives.
In October 2024, the RCMP dismantled the largest known fentanyl operation in Canada’s history. The fentanyl superlab was located on a remote, 66-hectare property in the forests of interior B.C.
In its raid, the police discovered black-market chemists were mixing massive quantities of precursor chemicals — some imported from China and others synthesized domestically. These chemicals had been used to produce some 54 kg of fentanyl.
Canadian authorities are now intensifying their efforts to stop the flow of precursor chemicals into Canada for illegal purposes.
On Dec. 17, Ottawa launched two new initiatives — the Canadian Drug Profiling Centre and the Chemical Precursor Risk Management Unit — as part of a broader $1.3-billion border security plan.
These new units represent an important step in addressing Canada’s growing drug crisis, sources say. However, it remains uncertain how effective they will be in confronting the rapidly evolving drug trade.
Flow of drugs
In the late 1990s and early 2010s, opioids like OxyContin were widely prescribed in North America, leading to widespread addiction and misuse.
In the early 2010s, Canada and the U.S. introduced stricter regulations to limit opioid prescriptions, making pharmaceutical opioids harder to obtain.
As access declined, many individuals with opioid dependencies turned to heroin as a substitute, fuelling a heroin epidemic in the early to mid-2010s.
By 2016-2017, fentanyl had largely replaced heroin in the illegal drug supply due to its lower cost, higher potency and the ease of smuggling it. Chinese manufacturers played a key role in supplying synthetic opioids like fentanyl to North America.
In 2019, under pressure from the U.S. and Canada, China imposed strict controls on fentanyl exports, disrupting the supply of ready-made fentanyl to both countries.
Yet the drug market adapted quickly.
A 2021 Canada Border Services Agency briefing document revealed a growing trend in Canada’s importation of precursor chemicals, fueling the rise of homegrown fentanyl production.
That same year, authorities in Australia busted their largest-ever illicit fentanyl shipment hidden in industrial equipment sent from Canada — proving Canadian fentanyl production was not limited to serving a domestic market.
By 2023, the RCMP had publicly confirmed Canada had become a producer and exporter of fentanyl.
“Sadly, Canada is a producing country of fentanyl and synthetic opioids,” Mathieu Bertrand, chief superintendent of the RCMP’s Serious and Organized Crime & Border Integrity Unit, told reporters in November 2023. “Not only are we a producing country, but we’re also an export country.”
Bertrand suggested this shift indicated either a surplus of fentanyl in Canada, or that organized crime groups operating in Canada had identified more lucrative markets abroad.
During the October 2024 lab bust in B.C., RCMP said production levels far exceeded demand from local consumers, suggesting it was being manufactured to meet foreign demand.
A June 2024 briefing by Global Affairs Canada to the House of Commons revealed that U.S. authorities were seizing Canada-produced fentanyl in the U.S.
Inside the drug superlab in Falkland, B.C., after being discovered by RCMP on October 31, 2024. (RCMP)
Smuggling methods
In response to a request for comment, the Canada Border Services Agency acknowledged the rise in imports of precursor chemicals.
“Over the last few years, the [Canada Border Services Agency] has seen an increase in the importation of precursor chemicals for the domestic production of illegal drugs,” agency spokesperson Jacqueline Roby told Canadian Affairs in an emailed statement.
Roby said the agency already uses tools such as handheld devices, X-ray machines and detector dogs to intercept shipments at the border.
Marie-Eve Breton, an RCMP media relations officer, said the task of finding precursor chemicals becomes very difficult if they are not intercepted at the border.
“Once the regulated chemicals have entered the country, it becomes more difficult to investigate as no legislative tools exist to address the illegal possession,” Breton told Canadian Affairs in an emailed statement.
But she also noted the difficulty of intercepting products at the border.
“Precursor and essential chemicals can be easily mislabelled and smuggled into the country,” she said. “Often, these chemicals enter Canada legally to support industry in the production of legal goods and products available for domestic use and international trade.”
Precursor chemicals such as ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, for example, have legitimate uses — such as to produce pharmaceuticals and fertilizers — but are also used to produce methamphetamine.
Similarly, acetic anhydride is used to produce products like perfumes and aspirin, but is also essential in fentanyl production.
New drug units
The recently launched Canadian Drug Profiling Centre and Chemical Precursor Risk Management Unit will strengthen government efforts to intercept and respond to precursor chemicals. The RCMP and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police are working with Health Canada to set up both units.
The Canadian Drug Profiling Centre will focus on analyzing synthetic drug samples seized by law enforcement. The centre will use chemical markers to trace substances back to their production source, identify manufacturing methods and potentially locate criminal networks.
“The analysis will help to identify trends and patterns to inform on the origin, distribution, and manufacture patterns of the drugs [and] profiling analyses will help better understand how distributors and drug dealers are changing or modifying the drugs,” said Tammy Jarbeau, a media relations advisor for Health Canada.
According to Jarbeau, the centre will support up to 2,000 investigations annually.
The Chemical Precursor Risk Management Unit will monitor and assess precursor chemicals seized at the border and through law enforcement operations.
If evidence shows that a “precursor is being detected at the border or used in clandestine laboratories,” it will trigger a scientific assessment by Health Canada to determine whether the substance should be classified as an emerging precursor chemical, said Jarbeau.
Drugs that are classified as chemical precursors under federal drug regulations can be regulated, monitored and restricted to help law enforcement better address illicit drug production.
Health Canada is proposing legal amendments to list equipment that are used in the production of illegal drugs, such as tablet presses and capsule filling machines.
Jarbeau says the proposed amendments would also require companies such as pharmacies and veterinary clinics to report suspicious transactions, conduct background checks for personnel handling precursor chemicals and limit sales of certain precursors.
But the illicit drug trade is mercurial, especially for fentanyl.
“The potency of fentanyl means that many fewer clandestine laboratories are required to produce a given supply … As a result, there are many less fentanyl labs, which makes them easier to conceal and harder to identify for police,” said Wright of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
“Sophisticated organized crime groups are well versed in police tactics and investigative methods.”