Drug Use and Offending

Q10. How often are youth and females charged with drug offences?

Of all drug charges laid by the police in 2000, one-in-seven accused was a youth and one-in-seven was a female.

Figure 7 : Drug Offence Rate for Canada and the provinces/territories (Rate per 100,000 population) 1999 and 2000

Figure 7 : Drug Offence Rate for Canada and the provinces/territories (Rate per 100,000 population) 1999 and 2000

Figure 7 description

This is a horizontal bar chart which illustrates the drug offence rate for Canada, provinces and territories for the years 1999 and 2000

The Y axis is divided into 14 jurisdictions from top to bottom by the following: Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, CANADA, New Brunswick, Yukon, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.

The X axis is measured in rate per 100,000 population and increases in increments of 100 from 0 to 900.

Two bars for each jurisdiction are demonstrated, one for the year 1999 and one for the year 2000.

No data points are provided for each bar. The bars visually demonstrate the difference in rate in drug offences for each jurisdiction, from 1999 to 2000:

Source

Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.

Youth are less often charged with a drug offence

Youth comprised 14% of the total number of individuals accused of drug offences which is less than the overall proportion of youth (21%) charged with a Criminal Code offence.

Two-thirds (69%) of all drug charges against youth were for drug possession. This is higher than the proportion of adults charged with a possession offence (54%). Moreover, adults are more likely to be charged with trafficking than youth (35% versus 29%), and with importation/production (11% versus 2%) (see Appendix B, Table 9 for more information).

Youth account for a higher proportion of individuals charged with cannabis possession and heroin and cocaine trafficking

Three-quarters of youth charged with a cocaine (75%) or heroin (77%) offence were charged with trafficking, compared to two-thirds of adults (65% and 67% respectively). However, adults were more likely than youth to be charged with other drug trafficking offences (44% versus 38%) while youth were more likely than adults to be charged with other drug possession (59% versus 49%) (see Appendix B, Table 10 for more information).

Source: Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.

Females less often charged than males

Women account for 14% of all drug-related charges reported by the police which is less than the overall proportion of women (19%) charged with a Criminal Code offence.

Females are more likely to be charged with drug possession

As with males, females are most often charged with drug possession. Almost one-half (44%) of all drug charges laid against women were drug possession offences. However, the numbers indicate that women are more likely than men to be charged with drug trafficking (39% versus 33%) and drug importation/production (16% versus 9%) (see Appendix B, Table 11 for more information).

Males account for a higher proportion of individuals charged with cannabis possession

Almost two-thirds (66%) of males charged with a cannabis offence were charged with cannabis possession compared to one-half (50%) of females. In contrast, females were more likely than males to be charged with a cannabis trafficking offence (28% versus 23%) and cannabis importation/production (23% versus 11% respectively).

For cocaine, heroin and restricted drug offences, the patterns among males and females are similar.

For other drug offences, males were more likely than females to be charged with possession (52% versus 47%), females were slightly more likely to be charged with importation/production (9% versus 6%) (see Appendix B, Table 12 for more information).

Source

Uniform Crime Reporting Survey 2000, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.