The Canada Border Services Agency has seen a significant increase in cannabis seizures in recent years, intercepting thousands of kilograms of product attempting to pass through the country’s borders and spurred in part by the growing popularity of online purchases.
Data published online by the CBSA shows that seizures have jumped from nearly 500 kilograms in the 2017-18 fiscal year to nearly 11,800 kilograms in 2020-21, a more than 2,200 per cent increase.
Halfway through the 2021-22 fiscal year, Canada’s border officials have intercepted more than 10,500 kilograms of cannabis, with the country easily on pace to surpass the previous year’s total.
The data is as of Nov. 29, 2021.
The CBSA declined a request for an interview. But in a series of emailed responses, the agency said cannabis items are being detected with "increasing frequency" in commercial shipments, which include air, marine, rail and highway cargo, as well as courier and postal.
Between April 1, 2018, and Sept. 30, 2021, the CBSA says approximately 73 per cent of cannabis seizures took place in the "commercial stream."
While courier and postal shipments generally contain smaller quantities of cannabis, the CBSA says these modes of transportation have made up the majority of those seizures.
"This can be partly attributed to a rise in e-commerce volumes, which has intensified with the pandemic," a CBSA spokesperson said.
"There has been a 117 per cent increase over the last three years in the volume of Courier Low Value Shipments alone."
The CBSA data includes seizures of other items such as illicit drugs, firearms, prohibited weapons, child pornography, currency, alcohol and tobacco, which do fluctuate year after year.
Cannabis seizures, meanwhile, have seen a more sustained and continuous increase by comparison.
Canada officially made cannabis legal for recreational use on Oct. 17, 2018, becoming the first G7 nation and the second country in the world after Uruguay to do so.
However, legal cannabis can only be sold through authorized retailers. It remains illegal to import cannabis into Canada, or export it, except for medical or scientific reasons and with the proper permit from Health Canada.
This includes receiving or sending cannabis by mail or courier.
"Unauthorized purchases from outside Canada (online or other) will be confiscated at the border," the CBSA spokesperson said.
"The persons can be arrested and prosecuted. The illicit cross-border movement of cannabis remains a serious criminal offence, punishable with imprisonment of up to five years under the Customs Act and up to 14 years under the Cannabis Act."
Ivan Ross Vrana, executive director of the Global Cannabis Partnership, credited the CBSA for being transparent with its figures on seizures, which he largely attributed to illegal online sales.
"As someone who works in the legal industry and works with a lot of different companies, this continues to be an issue," he said.
COVID-19 has only exacerbated the proliferation of e-commerce, not just in cannabis but other aspects in society, he says.
The issue, as Vrana sees it, is not so much about increasing access to cannabis but the ease of it, so people aren’t tempted to go to the illegal market where no restrictions exist.
"So as this industry matures, I think that will mature along with it."
CANNABIS SEIZURES
The CBSA defines cannabis products as dried and fresh cannabis, cannabis seeds, solids, non-solids, concentrates, and synthetic cannabis.
The seizures reported by the CBSA include items intercepted at land, marine and rail border crossings, as well as international airports and mail centres.
Although this includes both imports and exports, between April 1, 2018, and Sept. 30, 2021, almost 90 per cent of cannabis seized on its way into the country.
About 80 per cent of cannabis intercepted at border crossings is properly declared, the CBSA says. An officer, in turn, may seize undeclared cannabis and issue an administrative monetary penalty.
Although details weren’t provided on how exactly cannabis is disposed of, the CBSA spokesperson referred to Canada’s Customs Act, which governs the disposal of seized items, and said a memorandum of understanding exists with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for the destruction of cannabis and weapons.
"The CBSA takes its border and national security responsibilities very seriously," the spokesperson said.
"The safety and protection of Canadians are the CBSA’s top priorities. All persons, including Canadian citizens, seeking entry to Canada must present themselves to the CBSA and may be subject to a more in-depth exam."
CTVNews.ca requested a comment from Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino but did not receive a response before publication.
THE ONLINE MARKET
Cannabis remains a large and burgeoning industry in Canada, with a recent report from Deloitte Canada and the Ontario Cannabis Store finding that cannabis contributed $43.5 billion to the country’s gross domestic product and $13.3 billion to Ontario’s since it became legal for recreational use.
Their research estimates that the industry has generated $15.1 billion in Canadian tax revenue and $3 billion for Ontario. Consumer purchases alone have generated $2.9 billion in sales and excise taxes.
Canadians also are increasingly moving toward licensed retail stores as their source of cannabis.
Health Canada’s Canadian Cannabis Survey found 53 per cent usually bought cannabis from a legal storefront in 2021, compared to 41 per cent in 2020.
The proportion of Canadians surveyed who generally bought cannabis from an illegal storefront or online source remained relatively unchanged at two per cent each.
The factors that most influenced whom Canadians bought their cannabis from were price (28 per cent), safe supply (26 per cent) and quality (14 per cent).
Adam Taylor, president of Export Action Global, a trade facilitation firm based in Ottawa that specializes in medical cannabis exports, stressed that Canada only allows cannabis imports in rare instances, namely for scientific or research and development purposes, and in some cases for starting materials.
With the "explosion" of the online market, Taylor says people may wrongly consider it a workaround to getting products they wouldn’t otherwise find at a local cannabis store.
He says with a viable black market still in Canada, in part because products remain too costly, imports could help lower prices.
"But until the laws change, those are not legal ways to acquire cannabis," he said.
George Smitherman, president and CEO of the Cannabis Council of Canada, said legalization has created a sense of "immunity" even in the black market.
"We have that problem certainly within products that are being sold online and staying within Canada, and perhaps what the data is telling us is those online sources outside of Canada are being tapped in a similar way," he said.
Although he contends that cannabis is widely available to Canadians at low prices, he sees the proliferation of illegal online sales as a public health risk, with consumers potentially buying products with inaccurate amounts of THC or the psychoactive component of cannabis, banned pesticides and mold.
Mark Agnew, senior vice-president of policy and government relations for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, which has a National Cannxjmtzywabis Working Group, says public education is critical to direct people to the regulated industry and make it the more desirable route.
His colleague Jarred Cohen, a policy adviser for the chamber, added that while more Canadians are buying cannabis through legal means, there is "still a lot of work to be done in that regard."
Removing barriers, save for important ones such as age requirements, would go "a long way in promoting the legal market and displacing the illicit market," he said.
Beyond this, some whom CTVNews.ca spoke to touched on the limits that exist around the import and export of medical cannabis, and their desire to see Canada’s Cannabis Act undergo its required ministerial review, which the legislation says must happen three years after the law came into effect, or October 2021.
A report must be tabled no later than 18 months after the review begins. However, this review has yet to formally get underway.
CTVNews.ca asked Health Canada for a comment on when the review will get underway but did not receive a response before publication.
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A cannabis plant is shown in a garden in south-west Quebec on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
