Pubdate: Fri, 31 Dec 2004
Source: Sun Times, The (Owen Sound, CN ON)
Copyright: 2004, Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1544
Author: Jim Algie
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

TAKING A STAND ON DANGEROUS, ADDICTIVE DRUGS

The potential for prescription painkillers to become dangerously addictive 
makes them a priority for local law enforcement.

They're not the sole priority -- or even the top one -- judging by comments 
by federal drug prosecutor Doug Grace during an interview at his Owen Sound 
law office. That goes to large-scale outdoor marijuana growing operations 
which have become a feature of life in the rural areas of Grey and Bruce. 
 From a law enforcement perspective, the relatively small-scale 
street-level business of peddling pills at $10 a pop can't compare.

Growing operations producing contraband worth hundreds of thousands of 
dollars come with criminal desperadoes with firearms and organized crime 
connections. They are a dangerous threat to police and to public safety.

The local street trade in Oxycodone-based analgesics under trade names such 
as Percoset, Percodan and OxyContin happens on a much smaller scale, often 
among people who have become addicted to their pain medicines. But the 
public hazards are real enough: damaged lives for addicts, the risk of 
overdose deaths and interference with legitimate use of beneficial medicines.

"They're highly addictive and so I take a firm stand on anybody trading in 
hard drugs no matter how minute the quantity," Grace said. "There's a 
second social reason for being hard on it and it is that the more they are 
misused, the risk is that government will make them more tightly controlled 
and make them harder to get for people with legitimate pain."

The most significant recent local case dates from 1999. An Owen Sound man 
pleaded guilty to four counts of trafficking in cocaine and Percodan and 
was sentenced to 42 months in jail.

The arrest followed a year-long undercover investigation of a 
drugs-for-stolen-goods scheme operated by a former city man and an 
associate. The man sold drugs to undercover officers on five separate 
occasions in payment for what he thought was stolen merchandise.

At the time of sentencing, the convicted man's defence lawyer told court 
that his client had a prescription for Percodan because of a spinal injury 
he received in a serious car accident. Since the 1999 conviction, the 
illegal trade of prescription drugs in the city has been relatively quiet.

"Whether that stopped it or drove it further underground or whether we're 
just having a lull, I don't know," Grace said when asked about recent 
cases. "I don't think I see enough to notice a trend."

Invariably, they are awkward cases, often involving attempts to manipulate 
the legal process that controls prescription drug distribution. Unlike 
fully restricted drugs, controlled medications have a legitimate, everyday 
role in people's lives.

"There are several players when it comes to prescription drugs and each has 
a different interest and, except for the bad guy, nobody's wrong," Grace 
said, referring to the roles of physicians, pharmacists and patients with pain.

Pharmacy break-ins are relatively uncommon in the region, so the most 
common criminal cases involve patients with prescriptions attempting to 
deceive doctors and pharmacists.

Case histories include those who seek prescriptions from more than one 
doctor for the same complaint and others who have altered a prescription to 
increase the authorized number of doses.

Patients have a legitimate interest in large-volume prescriptions to 
minimize pharmacy dispensing expenses, but those surplus pills form the 
basis of the illegal trade locally, Grace said.

"Doctors want to treat patients with pain and pharmacists want to make sure 
people who need drugs get them at a reasonable cost, so there's no absolute 
cure to the problem," he said.

As an illegal commodity, prescription drugs have several attractions for 
people seeking a euphoric effect.

Because they're produced by reputable manufacturers, the medicines contain 
consistent, predictable quantities of their active ingredients. The same 
can't be said of street drugs such as cocaine, speed and ecstasy.

"There's a certain consistency to what they're getting and they know 
they're not going to suddenly go off the deep end from some reaction to 
something sprinkled on it," Grace said of prescription pills.

They also provide a readily accessible substitute for the more dangerous 
injectable opioids -- morphine and heroin.

"Addiction comes when you've gone to la la land and you can't get it out of 
your mind," Grace said. "A lot of these people are addicts.

"How they become addicted? Who knows," he said. "A lot of people live 
painful lives."

Canadian courts tend to be sympathetic in cases of pure addiction, 
providing criminal sentences that aim for medical treatment rather than 
jail. That doesn't apply to cases of trafficking.

"If you are an addict in the business of selling serious drugs to other 
people, the fact you're an addict doesn't cut you much slack," Grace said. 
"Don't put prescription drugs on some kind of pedestal. The fact that 
they're prescription drugs means they are available for people with 
legitimate pain and there are several problems with them."

Grace cites the risks to others as justification for strong sentencing 
measures in cases of prescription drug traffic.

"The large-scale production of marijuana is high on my priority list; low 
on my list would be simple possession of marijuana benign in 
circumstances," Grace said.

"The sale of highly addictive opiates and prescription drugs I would put 
high on my priority list. They are very, very addictive and in my opinion, 
dangerous."
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