Heroin

Heroin is a highly addictive drug made from morphine derived from the opium poppy. 

Pure heroin is a fine, white, bitter-tasting powder. What you buy on the street is often mixed with substances that look the same, including sugar, starch and quinine (a drug made from cinchona bark). It is increasingly found laced with fentanyl, a more powerful, synthetic opioid.

Street heroin varies in purity, colour and consistency and may look like a white powder, a dark sticky gum or a brown grainy substance. It is most commonly consumed by snorting up the nose, but it can also be smoked (chasing the dragon) or dissolved in water then injected in a vein (mainliningInjecting a substance directly into a vein) or under the skin (skin-poppingInjecting a drug under the skin).

You may know it better by its street names, which include H, dead on arrival, mud, brown, hero, hell dust, junk, skag, dope, dust, horse, smack and China White.

If you inject heroin into a vein, it reaches your brain and produces a euphoric rush within seconds and lasts for only a few minutes. If you smoke or snort it, the effects will be felt just as quickly, but with less intensity. If you inject heroin into a muscle or under the skin, it may take up to 20 minutes to feel the rush. Long-term use can result in impulsive behaviour that is difficult to control, a lack of emotion toward others, suicidal thoughts and memory issues. Physical effects include constipation, irregular menstrual cycles in women, cardiac arrest and insomnia.

If you are injecting heroin, you run the risk of coming into contact with non-sterile needles. The sharing of syringes and other paraphernalia can lead to the spread of infectious diseases such as HIV, and hepatitis B and C. There is also the ever-present risk of overdosing, as users rarely know the actual strength of the drug they are taking.

Since it falls under Schedule ICommonly characterized as “hard drugs" of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, heroin (listed under its formal name of Diacetylmorphine) is treated very seriously by police and the courts. Possessing, selling or producing it is illegal unless specifically authorized under federal regulations — for example, for medical or scientific research purposes.

To find you guilty of possessing heroin, the Crown must establish beyond a reasonable doubtThe standard that must be exceeded to find someone guilty that you were in possessionHaving knowledge and control of something — not only physically holding it, but also an item kept somewhere else that you know about and control. of the drug. Keep in mind that “possession” is not just limited to the idea that the drug was found on your person or in your car or house. Instead, it means that you had some degree of control and knowledge of the drug.

As a result, you can be found guilty of possession even if the heroin was found at someone else's house or in a friend’s gym bag.

The Crown must also prove that the substance is listed in the CDSA and that you knew what it was. The Crown does not have to prove that you knew the exact law. But if you genuinely did not know what the substance was, that may matter.

Our courts hand down the harshest sentences for those convicted of a crime involving Schedule I drugs, so you could be looking at jail time even on a first possession offence. When passing sentence, courts will look at how much you possessed and if there were any aggravating factorsAny information or evidence that may result in a heavier sentence involved.

Heroin possession is a hybrid offenceAn offence the Crown can proceed with summarily or by indictment.. On indictment the maximum is 7 years; on summary convictionUsed for lesser offences the maximum is a $1,000 fine and/or 6 months for a first offence, or $2,000 and/or 1 year for a subsequent offence. TraffickingInfluencing the movements of a person in order to exploit them, possession for the purpose of trafficking, and importing or exporting are indictable offences each carrying a maximum of life imprisonment.

November 17, 2022
Update: Bill C-5: Mandatory Minimum Penalties Repealed.