02 / 12 · Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, ss. 4 – 7
Drug Offences
Drug cases often turn on how the evidence was found. We scrutinize searches, warrants, and Charter compliance, and pursue the exclusion of evidence, diversion, or alternative resolutions where they serve your goals.
- Possession
- Possession for the purpose of trafficking
- Trafficking
- Importing and exporting
- Production and Cannabis Act offences
What is at stake
Why this charge needs a real defence.
Penalties depend on the substance, the quantity, and what the Crown says you intended to do with it. Trafficking in substances such as cocaine or fentanyl carries a maximum of life imprisonment, and courts sentence fentanyl cases severely. Even a possession conviction can close borders, end careers, and create immigration consequences.
How it is done
How we build your defence.
- 1
Start with the search
Most drug cases depend on a search of a person, car, phone, or home. We obtain the warrant and the sworn information behind it, and examine whether police had the grounds they claimed. A search without a warrant is presumed unreasonable and the Crown must justify it.
- 2
Question possession
The Crown must prove you knew about the substance and had control over it. Being near drugs, in a shared home or a car with other people, is not the same as possessing them.
- 3
Test the alleged purpose
Trafficking allegations usually rest on quantity, packaging, cash, phones, and police opinion evidence. Each of those inferences can be challenged, and the difference between possession and possession for the purpose of trafficking is enormous at sentencing.
- 4
Pursue the right resolution
Where it serves you, we pursue diversion, treatment-based options, reduced charges, or sentences served in the community, all of which became more widely available after the 2022 sentencing reforms.
What we look for
The issues that decide these cases.
- 01
Unreasonable search and seizure
If police breached section 8 of the Charter, the drugs themselves may be excluded, which frequently ends the case.
- 02
Arbitrary detention
A stop based on a hunch rather than reasonable suspicion can taint everything found afterward.
- 03
Knowledge and control
Shared spaces, borrowed vehicles, and packages addressed to someone else all raise real doubt about possession.
- 04
Informants and warrants
Warrants built on confidential tips must still disclose reliable, corroborated grounds. Many do not survive review.
Possible outcomes
What a good result can look like.
- Evidence excluded under section 24(2) of the Charter and charges dismissed or withdrawn
- Diversion or withdrawal for simple possession
- Trafficking allegations reduced to possession
- Discharges and community-based sentences that avoid jail
Every case turns on its own facts. These are examples of results that may be available, not a prediction or guarantee of the outcome in your matter.
Questions
What people ask us first.
Only if the Crown proves beyond a reasonable doubt that you knew the drugs were there and had some control over them. Proximity alone is not possession, and cases involving shared homes or vehicles are often defensible on exactly this point.
It can be, but the law now directs police and prosecutors to consider alternatives such as warnings or referrals to treatment before laying or continuing a simple possession charge. A lawyer can press for one of those alternatives in your case.
Next step
Talk to us about your drug offences matter.
A short conversation now can prevent mistakes that are hard to undo later. What you tell us is confidential.
