Ian Mulgrew: It’s easy to forget drug addiction’s often real face
“People involved in this world are users and victims and sometimes traffickers. There are very few kingpins around and very few out-and-out villains.”
Watching highly paid judges devoting hearings that involve lawyers, court staff, sheriffs and police to sort out the sordid disputes between damaged, drug-dependent individuals underscores the raging opioid crisis and the failure of anti-drug laws.
It’s easy to forget the all-too-common face of this emergency. People like Erynn May Taylor — vulnerable victims of a horribly frayed social safety net.
The 32-year-old Kamloops woman, who was dragged up, not reared, wanted her nine-month jail sentence reduced to probation for her role in an ugly dispute over a drug debt.
She was rebuffed by a hard-hearted B.C. Court of Appeal division.
