Sometimes it takes a tragedy to force change, as a Cole Harbour mother is learning. Trine Lise Good lost her son to a prescription drug and cocaine overdose in 2012, and insisted that Halifax area RCMP officers investigate and lay charges on the person who sold her son the drugs. In this case it was the man’s aunt, Leah Bordage. The RCMP ended their investigation a couple years ago, but re-opened the case and in the end did decide to lay charges on Bordage. During the course of the investigation Good made a formal complaint against the police for what she determined was bad handling of her son’s case, but the police have said that they followed regulations and that the investigation was indeed handled in a correct manner. Of course Good realizes that none of this will bring her son back to her, but she says that if she succeeds in creating awareness as to the prescription drug trafficking problem then she may be able to help other families who are dealing with the very real threat of drug related problems like potential overdosing on illegally obtained narcotics. If nothing else the case is putting the prescription drug dealing issue into more focus. When most people think of drug dealers they think of some shady character handing out little baggies to disheveled looking addicts on the corners of bad streets in sketchy neighborhoods. The reality is quite different, especially in the case of Good’s son who obtained his Dilaudid from a family member.
RCMP told Good that an officer interviewed Bordage after Ryan’s death, but he had no reason to suspect foul play and no immediate toxicology report, so he didn’t begin to investigate the possibility of trafficking. Later, the two drugs were found in Ryan’s system, and his family told police they needed to look at Bordage. However, police said a Crown attorney advised them that even a confession from Bordage would be moot. “Crown felt that your son was a grown adult and was capable of consenting or refusing the drugs,” said the report. “By knowingly using the drugs, he took a chance and as a result, he died.”
Although prosecution policy may be a difficult area of the law when it comes to cases like this, this particular case may help shed some light on one of the facts of prescription drug abuse that often goes unnoticed. Many people think that painkiller addicts get their preferred drug from a doctor, which in some cases is true, but with tougher laws and policies being released to curb the use of these powerful medications, many people are turning to the streets to purchase often stolen pills or drugs that have been obtained from a doctor for the sole purpose of being sold to someone else for ridiculous profit. A single pill of some narcotics can run you between $50 and $100 on the street, so there is should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that there is a huge (and growing) market for these types of illicit sales of brand name narcotics on the street.
More often than not people are acquiring these medications from someone they know, not some stereotypical street thug from a bad part of town. Ms. Good’s efforts to get police to begin more investigations is a good step forward to cracking down on both the casual and full-time dealers who are making profits at the cost of other people’s health and well-being.