Regulating Controlled Substances and Precursors

Many other substances are also captured under the CDSA as analogues, derivatives, isomers and salts of listed substances. Health Canada provides a public service to stakeholders to confirm the control status of substances. The status confirmation process includes a scientific review with respect to the heading in the Act for the relevant CDSA Schedule entry.

Controlled substances can be used improperly, resulting in harm to public health or safety. Precursors are chemicals that can be used to make controlled substances. That is why we regulate the substances and precursors listed in the CDSA.

The CDSA forbids the following activities for controlled substances and precursors, unless authorized by regulations or exempted under the CDSA:

The regulations and exemptions authorize lawful activities for medical, scientific and industrial purposes.

Some of the regulations made under the CDSA are:

Health Canada administers the CDSA and its regulations to:

To meet these 2 objectives, we:

The regulations apply to a broad range of parties, including:

All regulated parties must comply with requirements for:

Promoting and enforcing compliance

To promote compliance with the regulations we:

These actions are meant to help all regulated parties understand how to meet the requirements of the regulations.

Heath Canada also carries out inspections of regulated parties and monitors regulated activities.

Health Canada may take action when a regulated party is not following the rules of the CDSA. These actions include (but are not limited to):

Working with partners

Health Canada helps to protect the health of Canadians by working with a wide range of partners and stakeholders, including:

Our work with these groups includes:

Engaging and informing Canadians

We speak with Canadians as part of the regulatory process. This can include seeking the views of the public through a variety of means, including:

Health Canada informs Canadians about the health hazards of controlled substances through:

Health Canada announced the federal government's new approach to drug policy, the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy (CDSS), in December 2016.

The CDSS is a comprehensive, collaborative, compassionate and evidence-based approach, which uses a public health lens to address problematic drug and substance use. The approach restores harm reduction as a key pillar, alongside prevention, treatment and enforcement.

Contact us

Type of requests Contacts
Use of controlled drugs or substances in scientific research or for clinical trials exemption@hc-sc.gc.ca
Report loss, theft or unusual orders of controlled drugs or substances OCS_Monitoring_Surveillance_BSC@hc-sc.gc.ca
Activities with industrial hemp hemp-chanvre@hc-sc.gc.ca
Activities with precursor chemicals precursors-precurseurs@hc-sc.gc.ca
Applying for, or questions about, licences for activities with controlled substances cds-dsc@hc-sc.gc.ca
Disposing of controlled substances seized by law enforcement drugs-disposition-drogues@hc-sc.gc.ca
Questions about compliance and enforcement compliance-conformite@hc-sc.gc.ca
Registration of pill presses authorizations-autorisations@hc-sc.gc.ca
Destruction of controlled drugs or substances compliance-conformite@hc-sc.gc.ca
Practitioner and pharmacist inquiries compliance-conformite@hc-sc.gc.ca
Registration of test kit cds-dsc@hc-sc.gc.ca
Applying for, or questions regarding, exemptions to prescribe methadone exemption@hc-sc.gc.ca
Substance Status Confirmation Service hc.status-demandedestatut.sc@canada.ca