A former British Columbia drywaller was recently sentenced to two years and a day of jail time after being convicted for possessing fentanyl, reported Jeremy Hainsworth of Coast Reporter.

During the court case, it was revealed that the drywaller, Dana Stanly Gordon Carlson, started delivering drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic after his business could not find customers.

“A lot of people were negatively affected by the pandemic and a lot of people suffered hard times, but not a lot of people go out and deliver fentanyl when they are up against it financially,” British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Robin Baird said to Carlson. “You decided to make that choice, and now you are going to pay for it.”

Baird also said that he mainly focused on denunciation and deterrence when deciding sentencing.

“The devastating effects of fentanyl distribution and use are by now notorious,” Baird said in his decision. “We all know what is going on, Mr. Carlson, and you do too. Drug addicts are dropping dead all over the place from the abuse of this substance.”

Baird rejected a conditional sentence proposed by Carlson’s lawyer, saying that there have been stronger penalties for fentanyl because of “the blight that this trade inflicts on pretty well every community in Canada.”

Background of the Case

On Jan. 6, 2021, the Victoria Police Department’s emergency response team executed a warrant to search a hotel room occupied by Tighson Laughren at the Chateau Victoria Hotel as part of a drug trafficking investigation.

Laughren was arrested at the scene and police seized his cell phone in the course of their room search. The phone was not locked and did not require a passcode to access data stored inside.

A sergeant examined the phone and found an application called Signal, which he knew was an encrypted messaging application commonly used by drug traffickers. Opening the app, the officer found Laughren had been exchanging text messages with someone who identified himself or herself by the handle “Bradpitt.”

The messages included a discussion about the delivery of fentanyl to Laughren. Based on the messages, the officer believed “Bradpitt” was trafficking in mid-level amounts of fentanyl from around Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Pretending to be Laughren, the sergeant engaged with “Bradpitt” by text message. He placed a $24,000 order for 7 ounces of fentanyl, with “Bradpitt” saying a driver would deliver the drugs.

How the Drywaller Was Caught

“Bradpitt” had told the sergeant his driver was driving a black truck. When a black truck arrived, a team of officers closed in and arrested Carlson, who admitted that he was the driver.

The truck was searched and, as promised by “Bradpitt,” investigators found 7 ounces of fentanyl at 14 percent purity.

“Mr. Carlson has admitted that he possessed this often-lethal substance for the purposes of trafficking, but I accept that he was merely a courier dropping off a package, and I accept that he did not know how much of the substance was in the bag or how much it was worth,” Baird said.

Baird noted that Carlson was not getting a cut of the drug price but was paid to make the delivery.

“Since this supply of drugs was confiscated, he has been hectored and pursued and threatened by the people who gave it to him to deliver because, of course, he ‘lost’ their product and, with it, a significant amount of money, or at least that is how they look at it,” Baird said. “Mr. Carlson is not, himself, a fentanyl addict.”

The Fentanyl Crisis

Carlson had worked as a drywaller, a business that dried up when the pandemic hit, leaving him out of work, short of cash and unable to make his rent.

Baird said Carlson is remorseful for his actions.

“He has never given me even the smallest intimation that he is trying to evade responsibility for what happened,” Baird said.

Baird also said the fentanyl trade has caused disaster in British Columbia.

“The numbers are staggering,” Baird said. “Illicit trade in fentanyl not only destroys lives, but [also] entire communities. It severely compromises the peace, the health, the sense of well‑being that should be every British Columbian’s right to expect in every community in this province, and what we have instead are legions of ill and impoverished addicts in every downtown core, every town and municipality in our province.”