Table 8
Completed drug-related cases in adult criminal court, by decision, type of offence, and type of drug, Canada, 2008/2009 to 2011/2012

Table summary
This table displays the results of Completed drug-related cases in adult criminal court, by decision, type of offence, and type of drug, Canada, 2008/2009 to 2011/2012. The information is grouped by Type of offence and type of drug (appearing as row headers), Guilty, Stayed/withdrawn, Acquitted, Other and Total, calculated using number and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Type of offence and type of drugNote 1 GuiltyNote 2 Stayed/withdrawnNote 3 Acquitted OtherNote 4 TotalNote 5
number percent number percent number percent number percent number percent
Completed cases related to drug possession
Cannabis 25,219 43 33,369 57 92 0 258 0 58,938 100
Other drugs 22,740 65 12,158 35 129 0 120 0 35,147 100
Cocaine 13,870 66 6,933 33 88 0 63 0 20,954 100
Heroin 743 67 355 32 4 0 1 0 1,103 100
Methamphetamines 1,223 65 641 34 7 0 8 0 1,879 100
Ecstasy 510 59 345 40 1 0 8 1 864 100
Other CDSANote 6 6,394 62 3,884 38 29 0 40 0 10,347 100
Total completed cases related to drug possession 47,959 51 45,527 48 221 0 378 0 94,085 100
Completed cases related to drug supplyNote 7
Cannabis 7,752 49 7,883 50 148 1 85 1 15,868 100
Other drugs 15,248 56 11,600 43 270 1 111 0 27,229 100
Cocaine 10,968 58 7,774 41 206 1 77 0 19,025 100
Heroin 740 58 504 40 22 2 3 0 1,269 100
Methamphetamines 371 52 329 46 5 1 6 1 711 100
Ecstasy 256 52 230 46 4 1 6 1 496 100
Other CDSANote 6 2,913 51 2,763 48 33 1 19 0 5,728 100
Total completed cases related to drug supply 23,000 53 19,483 45 418 1 196 0 43,097 100
Completed drug-related cases
Cannabis 32,971 44 41,252 55 240 0 343 0 74,806 100
Other drugs 37,988 61 23,758 38 399 1 231 0 62,376 100
Cocaine 24,838 62 14,707 37 294 1 140 0 39,979 100
Heroin 1,483 63 859 36 26 1 4 0 2,372 100
Methamphetamines 1,594 62 970 37 12 0 14 1 2,590 100
Ecstasy 766 56 575 42 5 0 14 1 1,360 100
Other CDSANote 6 9,307 58 6,647 41 62 0 59 0 16,075 100
Total completed drug-related cases 70,959 52 65,010 47 639 0 574 0 137,182 100
Note 1.

Cases that involve more than one charge are represented by the most serious drug-related offence.

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Note 2.

Guilty findings include guilty of the offence, of an included offence, of an attempt of the offence, or of an attempt of an included offence. Also includes cases where an absolute or conditional discharge has been imposed.

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Note 3.

Includes stays, withdrawals, dismissals and discharges at preliminary inquiry as well as court referrals to alternative or extrajudicial measures and restorative justice programs.

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Note 4.

Includes final decisions of found not criminally responsible and waived out of province or territory. Also includes any order where a conviction was not recorded, the court's acceptance of a special plea, cases that raise Charter arguments and cases where the accused was found unfit to stand trial.

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Note 5.

Data exclude information from superior courts in Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan as well as municipal courts in Quebec due to the unavailability of data.

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Note 6.

Includes all other controlled drugs and substances. Includes precursors and equipment.

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Note 7.

Cases related to drug supply include trafficking, import, export, and production of controlled drugs and substances.

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Note: A case is one or more charges against an accused person or company that were processed by the courts at the same time and received a final decision. Cases in this table represent a subset of completed adult criminal and youth court cases from 2008/2009 to 2011/2012. This subset includes all completed cases over this period where at least one charge was drug related and where the case was linked to police records.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Integrated Criminal Court Survey and Uniform Crime Reporting Survey linked database, 2008/2009 to 2011/2012.
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