For years, Canadians have been told the same story about the toxic drug crisis: this is about “stigma,” “harm reduction,” and “meeting people where they’re at.”
All of that might sound compassionate. None of it answers a basic question:
Why are the chemicals to make fentanyl still flowing into Canada in the first place?
While Ottawa funds “safer use” zones and experiments with decriminalization, transnational crime groups are quietly importing the raw ingredients for one of the deadliest street drugs in the world. The supply is industrial. The deaths are real. And the political response is upside down.
The Supply Chain Nobody in Ottawa Wants to Talk About
Canada doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Synthetic opioid production is part of a global business model.
Over the last decade, China has played a major role in the fentanyl story. After Beijing imposed class-wide controls on fentanyl-related substances in 2019, direct shipments of finished fentanyl from China dropped. But the trade didn’t stop; it adapted. Traffickers shifted toward precursor chemicals and more complex routes.
Federal briefings show the pattern clearly: after China scheduled fentanyl and its analogues, seizures of finished fentanyl from China decreased, but seizures of precursor chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl increased, with 2022 marking a record year for precursor interceptions.
The trend hasn’t slowed. In October 2025, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and RCMP seized 4,300 litres of fentanyl precursor chemicals from China at the Tsawwassen Container Examination Facility in Delta, B.C.
Financial intelligence agencies add that suspicious transaction patterns show China is the primary source used by Canada-based networks to acquire precursor chemicals and lab equipment—including pumps, pill presses, and key adulterants like xylazine.
Put bluntly:
Canada isn’t passively exposed to fentanyl.
The supply chain is being built here, supplied from abroad.
Fentanyl Labs on Our Own Soil
The precursors aren’t just theoretical. They feed real drug labs operating in Canada.
In early 2025, RCMP in Surrey, B.C., dismantled three labs—two confirmed to be fentanyl production sites. Investigators reported professional-grade equipment and links to organized crime focused on importing precursors and equipment for fentanyl, MDMA, and GHB production.
National enforcement “sprints” claim hundreds of fentanyl-related arrests and seizures across the country.
The reality is simple:
- The precursors are flowing in.
- The labs are here.
- Canadians are dying in record numbers.
Yet the political focus remains on where people are allowed to use drugs, rather than why the supply is so abundant in the first place.
While Precursors Flow In, Policy Focuses on “Safe Use”
Under Liberal governance, the public narrative has leaned heavily toward harm reduction:
- supervised consumption sites
- “safer supply” programs
- decriminalization pilots
- “stigma reduction” messaging
In theory, this approach reduces harms. In practice, it has overshadowed enforcement and treatment.
The B.C. Decriminalization Experiment
In 2023, Ottawa approved B.C.’s request to decriminalize possession of small amounts of hard drugs under a three-year exemption.
The goal was to treat addiction as a health issue. What followed was public frustration over disorder, open drug use, and safety concerns. B.C. eventually asked Ottawa to re-criminalize public drug use while keeping decriminalization in private spaces and encampments.
Meanwhile, overdose deaths remain high. National and international outlets have documented rising backlash to safer-supply and supervised-use programs.
Supporters of these programs point to research showing reduced risky behaviours near supervised sites.
But none of that changes the question:
Why are we normalizing daily drug use instead of breaking addiction?
Policy That Manages Addiction Instead of Ending It
While precursors and equipment keep entering Canada, public policy has become centered around permanent management instead of recovery:
- “drug use zones” normalize open consumption
- cities deal with the fallout in parks and downtown cores
- treatment capacity remains limited
- safer supply sometimes feeds diversion instead of recovery
Conservatives argue that this model stabilizes addiction rather than ending it.
Pierre Poilievre has proposed the opposite: defund safer supply and consumption sites and redirect the money into detox, long-term treatment, and recovery housing for tens of thousands of Canadians.
The philosophical divide is clear:
- The Liberal model plans for ongoing drug use.
- The Conservative model plans for people to get clean.
China, Precursor Flows, and Political Will
Canadian enforcement already knows the problem:
- precursor chemicals coming from China
- Canadian groups paying for them through global channels
- domestic labs converting them into street drugs
- deaths climbing year after year
FINTRAC, CBSA, and RCMP all report this.
International pressure has led China to tighten its own controls, but precursor flows continue.
This isn’t a mystery to anyone.
The missing ingredient isn’t knowledge — it’s political will.
What a Serious Response Would Look Like
A real strategy against the opioid crisis would:
- Treat precursor chemicals as the core threat
Give them top-tier national security priority and continuously update scheduling of emerging synthetic opioids. - Target the financial networks behind the trade
Use FINTRAC intelligence to freeze accounts, disrupt payments, and dismantle shell companies linked to precursor sourcing. - Invest heavily in treatment instead of dependency management
Expand detox, long-term rehabilitation, and recovery housing across Canada. - Be honest about failed experiments
Acknowledge the public safety issues caused by permissive drug-use policies and reverse them when necessary.
At its core, the solution is simple:
Stop the supply.
Break the production chain.
Help people recover.
Protect communities.
That’s not cruelty.
That’s compassion paired with reality.
