A panel of B.C. Court of Appeal judges has signaled that drug dealers trafficking in fentanyl should be given substantially lengthier sentences because of the drug’s connection to the province’s unprecedented overdose death toll.
In a court ruling March 10, three appeal court judges agreed sentences of 18 to 36 months — and possibly higher — should be the range of prison time served by dealers of the deadly synthetic narcotic that has killed hundreds in Vancouver and throughout B.C.
The judges recommended the stiffer sentences after reviewing a case appealed by the Crown, which argued a six-month sentence given to a 59-year-old dealer working in the Downtown Eastside was “unfit” when considering about 60 per cent of the 922 drug deaths in B.C. last year were linked to fentanyl.
Two of the judges dismissed the Crown’s appeal, concluding Frank Stanley Smith’s offences in January 2015 occurred before the sudden explosion in overdose deaths; B.C. saw 397 deaths in 2015. The one dissenting judge, Madam Justice Mary Newbury, agreed with the Crown that Smith’s sentence should have been increased to 18 months.
Police arrested Smith after he sold drugs to an undercover officer. He was in possession of 2.6 grams of fentanyl, 4.2 grams of cocaine and several rocks of crack cocaine weighing a total of 3.2 grams. Smith, who had no criminal record at the time of sentencing, said he believed the fentanyl was heroin.
Of the 922 people who died of an overdose in B.C. last year, more than 215 died in Vancouver. Many of those deaths occurred in the same neighbourhood where Smith sold drugs. Forty-five people died in Vancouver in January.
“In my view, the landscape in 2015 and 2016 was transformed and is now qualitatively different from what it had been at the time of the offence in terms of the severity of the crisis and recognition of the role of fentanyl in it,” wrote Justice David Harris, whose remarks were supported by Justice Peter Willcock. “In sum, the continuing escalation in the number of fentanyl-detected deaths, the enormity of the total numbers of accidental overdosing, the increasing percentage of fentanyl-detected deaths as a proportion of the total, and the currently ubiquitous awareness of the risks posed by illicit fentanyl, in combination, justify a recognition of a very substantial increase in the sentencing range applicable to street-level dealing in fentanyl.”
Lengthy sentences for fentanyl dealers in other provinces coupled with the rising numbers in deaths in B.C. were factors all three judges agreed should lead to more prison time for current offenders. Newbury cited cases in Ontario and Saskatchewan where street dealers were sentenced to 40 months and 30 months, respectively.
“I agree with the many judges who have stated that denunciation and deterrence must generally be given primacy in sentencing in cases involving fentanyl,” Newbury wrote. “To this end, I would suggest a normal range beginning at 18 months’ imprisonment, as the Crown suggests.”
She continued to say it wasn’t necessary for the judges to specify the top end of a sentence, but suggested the range could exceed 36 months, depending on the severity of the offences and where the dealer fit in the echelon of the drug trade.
The judges’ written reasons did not include any references to a case in January where Walter James McCormick was sentenced to 13 years and 144 days in prison for his involvement in the drug trade, specifically the selling of fentanyl. McCormick’s offences were committed in Vancouver in January and February of 2015 and in Richmond in May 2016.
Court documents say undercover police purchased 3,000 fentanyl pills from McCormick and found a pile of drugs in his storage locker, including 27,000 fentanyl pills, four kilograms of cocaine, one kilogram of methamphetamine, 374 grams of MDMA, five grams of heroin, more than 22 kilograms of cannabis and a pill press.
The street value of the drugs was estimated at $2,034,132.
Police also seized $171,905 in cash, a .40 calibre pistol and .22 calibre rifle. McCormick made $100,000 bail and then got in trouble in Richmond in May 2016, with police seizing 1,049 fentanyl pills, two kilograms of cocaine, 18 kilograms of cannabis, 4,285 alprazolam pills, $4,736 in cash and seven cell phones.
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