<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards . No cleanup reason has been specified . Please help improve this article if you can . (July 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> Canada's drug regulations are measures of the Food and Drug Act and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act . In relation to controlled and restricted drug products, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act establishes eight schedules of drugs and new penalties for the possession, trafficking, exportation and production of controlled substances as defined by the Governor - in - Council . Drug policy of Canada has traditionally favoured punishment of the smallest of offenders, but this convention was partially broken in 1996 with the passing of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act . </P> <P> Until 1908 the use of narcotics, opiates, Alcohol and Tobacco especially, in Canada was unregulated but were on the way of regulation . From the 1850s onwards, Chinese immigrants came to British Columbia in droves, establishing opium dens in their isolated communities . Canadian employers saw the Chinese immigrants as a source of cheap labour, and the government viewed opium consumption as another way to gain revenue, imposing a tax on opium factories in 1871 . However, with the decline of the gold rush in the 1880s resentment towards the Chinese grew, as unemployed Canadians could not compete with cheap Chinese labour . Additionally, Japanese immigration to Canada began to rise sharply, resulting in demonstrations against Asian labour . In 1907, there was a particularly large demonstration against Asian immigrants in Vancouver's Chinatown . In response to the demonstrations, Deputy Minister of Labour Mackenzie King travelled to British Columbia and interviewed two opium merchants . King was concerned with the growing numbers of white opium users and believed that Canada had to set the precedent on drug use worldwide . The following year the government enacted the Opium Act of 1908, which made it an offence to import, manufacture, possess or sell opium, while not making it an imprisonable offence . The same year, Parliament passed the Proprietary and Patent Medicine Act 1908, prohibiting the use of cocaine in medicines and requiring pharmaceutical companies to list on the label the ingredients of any medicine if heroin, morphine, or opium was part of the contents . </P> <P> The 1908 drug law created a black market for opium, and law enforcement officials believed that the only way to stop this black market was through imprisonment for offenders, so the Opium and Drugs Act 1911 was passed by Parliament . This created harsher penalties for drug offenders and also expanded the list of prohibited drugs to include morphine and cocaine, while cannabis was included in 1923 . During World War I, all provinces enacted prohibition, a decision repealed in all areas except Prince Edward Island by 1929 . In 1921 the penalties of the Opium and Drugs Act were expanded to provide for a seven - year prison sentence for crimes committed under the Act . The amendment also made it an offence to be in a building that contained narcotics, notably shifting the burden of proof to the defendant for this crime . Whipping and deportation became penalties for violations of the 1911 Act in 1922 . </P>

Is it illegal to do drugs in canada