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." - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl