QUICK TAKEAWAY
Heroin: In Canada, Heroin falls under the falls under Schedule I of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The courts can come down hard on offenders, with jail time possible for a first offence, especially if there are aggravating factors such as the involvement of minors. The instant high and the short blissful sensation that heroin offers make it a sought-after street drug, even though the withdrawal symptoms can be unpleasant.
Table of Contents:
What is 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).
Street Names for Heroin
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.
Short and Long-Term Effects of Heroin
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.
Legal Status in Canada
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 in the Act) is a street drug that police and the courts treat seriously. Any activity connected to opioids – selling, possessing or producing – is illegal, unless it is for medical, scientific or industrial purposes.
What is Needed to Convict
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 possession 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.
Other basics the Crown has to prove is that the substance in question is a drug listed in the CDSA and that you had knowledge about its illegal nature.
Penalties for Heroin Possession
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 factors involved.
The Crown has the discretion to treat your heroin charge as a summary conviction or indictable offence. If it is your first offence and you are found guilty on summary conviction, you face a maximum fine of $1,000, imprisonment up to six months or both. For a subsequent offence, the maximum fine increases to $2,000 while the maximum imprisonment cannot exceed one year, or both.
If the Crown treats your possession charge as an indictable offence, the maximum prison term increases to seven years.
If you possessed heroin for the purpose of trafficking or exporting, the possible penalty includes life imprisonment.
November 17, 2022
Update: Bill C-5: Mandatory Minimum Penalties Repealed.
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Curran & Fielding Law Firm
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Glossary of Legal Terms
Mainlining
Injecting a substance directly into the bloodstream through a vein, which leads to an instant high but it is also the riskiest method to consume drugs in terms of overdosing.
Reasonable doubt
The Supreme Court of Canada has said that reasonable doubt “falls much closer to absolute certainty than to proof on a balance of probabilities” and “that something less than absolute certainty is required, and that something more than probable guilt is required."
Schedule I
Schedule I drugs are commonly characterized as “hard drugs.” They include street drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and opium and numerous pharmaceutical-grade drugs such as oxycodone and morphine. Schedule I drugs show a high risk of dependency. See Schedule I of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Skin-popping
The administration of a street drug under the skin, which allows it to diffuse slowly, extending the duration of the feeling of euphoria.
