Police Make Felony Drug Arrest (Suboxone)

PostStar.com

5/29/2009

Police Make Felony Drug Arrest

FORT EDWARD -- A Fort Edward man faces six felony charges for allegedly selling prescription drugs to a police informant, police said.

Joshua O. Smith, 31, of McCrea Street faces counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal diversion of prescriptions, according to court records.

He is accused of illegally selling the prescription drug Suboxone to a police informant earlier this month. Suboxone is a drug given to heroin and painkiller addicts to help them with their addictions.

The arrest was Smith’s second on felony charges in less than a year. He was arrested last summer on a grand larceny charge for allegedly receiving more than $14,000 in public assistance to which he wasn’t entitled.

He pleaded guilty to petit larceny, a misdemeanor, in that case, made full restitution to the county and was put on probation for 3 years, officials said.

Smith was being held in Washington County Jail for lack of bail pending further court action.

The case was investigated by Hudson Falls Police, Glens Falls Police and the Washington County Drug Task Force.

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http://www.poststar.com/articles/2009/05/29/news/blotter/doc4a1eb345479a9743854312.txt

Is anyone else as disturbed as I am over this?

An investigation was launched into a man for selling out of his Suboxone prescription.

What was originally 'no big deal' to law enforcement now seems like a top priority: luring Buprenorphine patients to sell pills from their prescription to informants.

Most of the people who buy illicit Suboxone are Heroin or other opioid addicts, who use the tablets as directed as a form of self-help; it seems these people are right in the crosshairs, and it is easy to snare them, the cops all know who the Bupe docs are. Similar to the sting operations they run near Methadone clinics (people at my clinic are constantly harrassed leaving the parking lot- not wearing a seatbelt, headlight out, no signal to turn from a driveway, etc).

Disgusting. Harm Reduction: if someone you don't know approaches you 'dope sick' begging to buy Suboxone, don't say a word and quickly get the hell away from them and the SWAT van listening in.

and wasn't this same guy just found dead in his mother's house from a heroin OD?

The drug laws in this country fucking make me sick...

...shouldn't we be a bit more worried about the fact that more and more Americans are out of jobs on a daily basis? Or how about the fact that our "border patrol" stands idly by and watches hundreds of thousands of people enter the country illegally? No, these aren't serious matters, it seems.

We sure do have the manpower to make sure someone going through WD's won't get relief, though!

/end rant

I am glad the police are keeping these horrible people off of suboxone, now these nasty junkies will just have to settle for heroin....

theWorldWithin said:

I am glad the police are keeping these horrible people off of suboxone, now these nasty junkies will just have to settle for heroin....

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It certainly adds credence to the old conspiracy theory about the powers that be subjugating the poor to be the house of illicit drug markets. Confine the drug trade to the poorest, most ignored segment of society.

Attempts to normalize the lives of addicts without forcing them to commit to dehumanizing, stigmatizing self-loathing 'treatment' (religious conservative 'detox retreats', etc)where they admit they have no power to control themselves, they are immoral and out of control, and need to be saved from themselves- i.e. Opiate Replacement Therapy- are met with the same resistance as calls for legalization, or decriminalization. Back to the confines of your ghetto.

^
A lot of OST also mandates the type of 'treatment' you pointed out. At least all of the clinics and most bupe doctors here do. And that's not even getting into court mandated NA meetings...

I am not suprised at this at all. Drug laws are very harsh in New York State, especially in he boondocks. Fort Edward is a small town. Even simple possession of any controlled substance (even one pill), witout a prescription is a felony.

*Jack misses California.

why get angry at the cops? you guys voted for those in office to create these laws...

Like we had a choice to begin with...

Killa-B said:

why get angry at the cops? you guys voted for those in office to create these laws...

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undercover!? :O

Killa-B said:

why get angry at the cops? you guys voted for those in office to create these laws...

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Elections are a pretty weak example of public expression. The forces of Capital have a much better ally in the ballot box than the Leninist method of physical persuasion, or in paramilitary gangs to enforce order. If most people think they are in charge, those who know we are not get marginalized.

Regardless, there isn't one example of a public voting for drug laws. The US drug war going back to WWI is a history of 'Enabling Act' style cut and paste legislation. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 was nothing but a public auction held for Big Pharma: if you win the betting, your patented drugs get a lesser Schedule (or in some cases of the big boys left off the CSA altogether).
Hell the first drug laws were based on taxes, because the politicians knew it was unconstitutional to tell the public they can't consume what they desire.

Police have a choice. Instead of trying to protect and serve the community, they are persecuting drug users in treatment.

Regardless, there isn't one example of a public voting for drug laws.

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Absolute nonsense. Take 10 minutes, think, and then correct that statement, because in the US, it's absolutely wrong.

The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 was nothing but a public auction held for Big Pharma: if you win the betting, your patented drugs get a lesser Schedule (or in some cases of the big boys left off the CSA altogether).

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Another big lie. For the most part, the drugs that were going to be scheduled had been determined at least a decade before. The stimulants, the opiates, the psychedelics, the depressants and cannabis already had controls in place, but they varied widely and in many cases only at the state level.

This is why you find so many super oddball drugs included that were long forgotten by 1970 even. Parahexyl / Synhexyl, Lefetamine (called SPA many times), some of other oddball stimulants that aren't even manufactured anymore, and haven't been abused long before 1970.

There are some cases of drugs not being scheduled that probably should have been, but that certainly wasn't because it was an auction. Carisoprodol, Primidone, Butorphanol (in the past) among a really tiny handful of others.

But even in that list I have to go to drugs that weren't being used in 1970 (I don't believe butorphanol came out at all until the 90s, but I could be wrong).

If we're going to talk about drugs being brought out since, say 1985, it's not nearly as inaccurate. Tramadol unscheduled, but pregabalin and lacosamide are.

Most of the oddities seem to be the result of stupidity or simple oversight.

I don't think primidone was left unscheduled on purpose. Nor was para-hydroxyamphetamine- PHA was just a big mistake (this may be scheduled I'm told, but I'm pretty sure it's not- I'm not even 100% that it isn't just a sympathomimetic). Then there are the other thousand depressants now obsolete that were abused in the past.

Nalbuphine (bought off the CsA)

Dextromethorphan & LevoMethamphetamine and their suspicious exemptions. I do love the DXM excuse; that there is no 'less dangerous' alternative cough suppressant that could be marketed OTC (and the foreign cough suppressant Pholcodine is CI).

This isn't ADD; hyperbole is allowed.