Canada Border Services agents seize opiate called 'doda' at Winnipeg airport

Drugs, cash seized at Winnipeg airport Gabrielle Marchand reports on a bust at Winnipeg's airport that seized $21K in cash and 1.35 kilograms of an opiate called 'doda.'

Officers with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) seized 1.35 kg of doda and $21,000 in undeclared cash at Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport.

CBSA said the doda was declared as craft supplies and the seizure happened in January.

Doda is an illegal substance made from ground up opium poppy pods. Extract from opium poppies pods can be refined into morphine and codeine and is also used to produce heroin.

University of Sherbrooke Pharmacology-Physiology Department Head Louis Gagnon told CTV News people make and consume tea out of doda and that the substance would act like a cheaper and less potent version of heroin.

“It would get them high just like morphine or heroin do. It would cause euphoria,” Gagnon said.

The CBSA made eight seizures of doda in Manitoba in 2018. As of January 31st it had made one seizure of doda.

A spokesperson for Winnipeg police said that while its organized crime unit was aware of what the opiate was, it hasn’t seen it in Winnipeg.